Numerical simulation and experimental validation of gas–solid flow in the riser of a dense fluidized bed reactor

Gas–solid flow in the riser of a dense fluidized bed using Geldart B particles (sand), at high gas velocity (7.6–15.5 m/s) and with comparatively high solid flux (140–333.8 kg/m² s), was investigated experimentally and simulated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD), both two- and three-dimensional and using the Gidaspow, O’Brien-Syamlal, Koch-Hill-Ladd and EMMS drag models. The results predicted by EMMS drag model showed the best agreement with experimental results. Calculated axial solids hold-up profiles, in particular, are well consistent with experimental data. The flow structure in the riser was well represented by the CFD results, which also indicated the cause of cluster formation. Complex hydrodynamical behaviors of particle cluster were observed. The relative motion between gas and solid phases and axial heterogeneity in the three subzones of the riser were also investigated, and were found to be consistent with predicted flow structure. The model could well depict the difference between the two exit configurations used, viz., semi-bend smooth exit and T-shaped abrupt exit. The numerical results indicate that the proposed EMMS method gives better agreement with the experimental results as compared with the Gidaspow, O’Brien-Syamlal, Koch-Hill-Ladd models. As a result, the proposed drag force model can be used as an efficient approach for the dense gas–solid two-phase flow.     

Experimental and computational studies on flow behavior of gas–solid fluidized bed with disparately sized binary particles

This paper presents experimental and computational studies on the flow behavior of a gas-solid fluidized bed with disparately sized binary particle mixtures. The mixing/segregation behavior and segregation efficiency of the small and large particles are investigated experimentally. Particle composition and operating conditions that influence the fluidization behavior of mixing/segregation are examined. Based on the granular kinetics theory, a multi-fluid CFD model has been developed and verified against the experimental results. The simulation results are in reasonable agreement with experimental data. The results showed that the smaller particles are found near the bed surface while the larger particles tend to settle down to the bed bottom in turbulent fluidized bed. However, complete segregation of the binary particles does not occur in the gas velocity range of 0.695-0.904 m/s. Segregation efficiency increases with increasing gas velocity and mean residence time of the binary particles, but decreases with increasing the small particle concentration. The calculated results also show that the small particles move downward in the wall region and upward in the core. Due to the effect of large particles on the movement of small particles, the small particles present a more turbulent velocity profile in the dense phase than that in the dilute phase.     

Numerical modelling of gas–solid fluidized beds using the two‐fluid approach

This paper details an approach to modelling gas–solid fluidized beds using the two‐fluid granular temperature model. Details concerning the difficulties associated with the boundary conditions, particularly for curved boundaries, are described along with a novel means of obtaining the internal stress of the solid‐phase, in part, by solving an implicit equation. This results in a scheme that is stable even when the solid volume fraction is close to maximum packing. A transient, mixed finite element discretization is used to solve the multi‐phase equations with a discontinuous finite element representation of the granular temperature and continuity equations. A new solution method is proposed to solve the coupled momentum and continuity equations based on Arnoldi iteration. Two fluidized beds are modelled, one in the bubbling regime and the other in the slugging regime. These simulations are compared with experiments. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modeling and simulation of circulating fluidized bed reactors applied to a carbonation/calcination loop

A fluid dynamic model for a gas-solid circulating fluidized bed (CFB) designed using two coupled riser reactors is developed and implemented numerically with code programmed in Matlab. The fluid dynamic model contains heat and species mass balances to calculate temperatures and compositions for a carbonation/calcination loop process.Because of the high computational costs required to resolve the three-dimensional phenomena, a model representing a trade-off between computational time requirements and accuracy is developed. For dynamic processes with a solid flux between the two reactor units that depends on the fluid dynamics of both risers, a dynamic one-dimensional two-fluid model is sufficient.A two-fluid model using the constant particle viscosity closure for the stress term is used for the solid phase, and an algebraic turbulence model is applied to the gas phase. The numerical model implementation is based on the finite volume method with a staggered grid scheme. The exchange of solids between the reactor units constituting the circulating fluidized bed (solid flux) is implemented through additional mass source/sink terms in the continuity equations of the two phases.For model validation, a relevant experimental analysis provided in the literature is reproduced by the numerical simulations. The numerical analysis indicates that sufficient heat integration between the two reactor units is important for the performance of the circulating fluidized bed system.The two-fluid model performs fairly well for this chemical process operated in a CFB designed as two coupled riser reactors. Further analysis and optimization of the solution algorithms and the reactor coupling strategy is warranted.     

Modeling and simulation of circulating fluidized bed reactors applied to a carbonation/calcination loop

A fluid dynamic model for a gas-solid circulating fluidized bed （CFB） designed using two coupled riser reactors is developed and implemented numerically with code programmed in Matlab. The fluid dynamic model contains heat and species mass balances to calculate temperatures and compositions for a carbonation/calcination loop process. Because of the high computational costs required to resolve the three-dimensional phenomena, a model representing a trade-offbetween computational time requirements and accuracy is developed. For dynamic processes with a solid flux between the two reactor units that depends on the fluid dynamics of both risers, a dynamic one-dimensional two-fluid model is sufficient. A two-fluid model using the constant particle viscosity closure for the stress term is used for the solid phase, and an algebraic turbulence model is applied to the gas phase. The numerical model implementa- tion is based on the finite volume method with a staggered grid scheme. The exchange of solids between the reactor units constituting the circulating fluidized bed （solid flux） is implemented through additional mass source/sink terms in the continuity equations of the two phases, For model validation, a relevant experimental analysis provided in the literature is reproduced by the numerical simulations, The numerical analysis indicates that sufficient heat integration between the two reactor units is important for the performance of the circulating fluidized bed system, The two-fluid model performs fairly well for this chemical process operated in a CFB designed as two coupled riser reactors. Further analysis and optimization of the solution algorithms and the reactor coupling strategy is warranted.     

Multi-fluid modeling of density segregation in a dense binary fluidized bed

This paper presents simulation results of the density segregation in a dense binary gas fluidized bed using a multi-fluid model from Chao et al. (2011). The segregation behavior of two types of particles with approximately same particle diameters and different particle densities was studied and validated using the experimental data from Formisani et al. (2008). Some detailed information regarding the gas, particle velocity profiles, the distributions of the particle volume fractions and the flotsam-to-total particle volume fraction ratios is presented. The simulation results show that the simulated axial average flotsam-to-total particle volume fraction ratio distribution agrees reasonably with the experimental data of Formisani et al. (2008). The binary particle velocities are closely coupled though the segregation exists. The segregation behavior and the particle velocity profiles are superficial gas velocity dependent. The number and distribution of particle velocity vortices change dramatically with superficial gas velocity: at a comparatively low superficial gas velocity, the particles mainly segregate axially, and at a comparatively high superficial gas velocity, the particles segregate both axially and radially.     

Magnetic resonance studies of a gas–solids fluidised bed: Jet–jet and jet–wall interactions

Magnetic resonance imaging （MRI） gave images of air jets from orifices in the distributor plate of a bed of poppy seeds. Attention focused on two features：
（1） The interaction between nearby vertical jets from two, three or four orifices;
（2） Wall effects, where one or more orifices created vertical jets near the vertical wall of the cylinder containing the particle bed.
The results show that nearby jets are mutually attracted. Likewise a jet near a wall bends out of the vertical, towards the wall, For multiple adjacent jets, the jet lengths show dependence on orifice layout： the lengths are in reasonable agreement with published measurements, by other methods, for single jets. The MRI gives three-dimensional images of the single jets and of multiple jets, separate or merging.     

Application of CFD-DEM to the study of solid exchange in a dual-leg fluidized bed

The CFD-DEM model was developed to simulate solid exchange behavior between two half beds in a bench-scale two-dimensional dual-leg fluidized bed （DL-FB）. Power spectrum density （PSD） analysis was applied to obtain the dominant frequency （F） of the simulated differential particle number （APLR） between the two half beds. Effects of fluidization velocity （u） and bed material inventory （H） on the solid exchange behavior were studied using the CFD-DEM model. Not only snapshots of the simulated particle flow patterns using the OpenGL code but also the dominant frequency of APLR was similar to the experimental results. The simulation results show that higher fluidization velocity assists the exchange of more particles between the two half beds, but the dispersion of clusters on the bed surface into single particles decreases the cluster exchange frequency. A greater bed material inventory results in more intense cluster exchange. The cluster exchange frequency decreases with an increase of the bed material inventory.     

Simulation of gas–solid particle flows over a wide range of concentration

A two-fluid model of gas–solid particle flows that is valid for a wide range of the solid-phase volume concentration (dilute to dense) is presented. The governing equations of the fluid phase are obtained by volume averaging the Navier–Stokes equations for an incompressible fluid. The solid-phase macroscopic equations are derived using an approach that is based on the kinetic theory of dense gases. This approach accounts for particle–particle collisions. The model is implemented in a control-volume finite element method for simulations of the flows of interest in two-dimensional, planar or axisymmetric, domains. The chosen mathematical model and the proposed numerical method are applied to three test problems and one demonstration problem. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modeling of pyridine synthesis process in a coupled fluidized bed reactor

To obtain the optimal operating conditions of a coupled reactor for pyridine synthesis, reactor modeling process is carried out in this paper. During the modeling process, the flow hydrodynamics, heat transfer behavior, inter-phase mass transfer behavior and reaction kinetics were taken into consideration consequently. Further, a regression program based on least square method was proposed to regress the model parameters. The prediction results agreed well with the experimental results with an average deviation of 5.9%. Finally, by setting suitable aim function, the optimal operating conditions of the coupled reactor for pyridine synthesis were determined.     

PIV measurement of particle motion in spiral gas–solid two-phase flow

With a concise review on some basic and novel algorithms and methods for the techniques of particle-imaging velocimetry (PIV), the paper reports an application of the PIV techniques to the investigation of particle motion in a gas–solid two-phase spiral flow in a horizontal tube. Axial velocities of the transported particles are obtained. Some important features of particle motion governing high transportation efficiency of the spiral flow are revealed by investigating probability density distribution of particle locations in a pipe cross-section.     

On the use of Csanady’s formulae in a turbulent gas–solid channel flow

The paper examines the use of expressions proposed by Csanady to predict the influence of the crossing trajectory and continuity effects on the decorrelation time scales of the fluid along solid particle trajectories in horizontal and downward vertical channel flows. The model is evaluated using data provided by a direct numerical simulation (DNS) of the carrier phase combined with a Lagrangian simulation of discrete particle (LS). Two particle relaxation times and two values of the gravity acceleration are considered. The results show the possibility of using Csanady’s expressions in a turbulent channel flow provided that the spatial and temporal correlations anisotropy is included in the model. As in isotropic homogeneous turbulence, a decrease of the decorrelation time scales is found to be more important in the directions perpendicular to the mean relative velocity.     

Parallelization of pseudo-particle modeling and its application in simulating gas–solid fluidization

Pseudo-Particle Modeling (PPM) is a particle method proposed by Ge and Li in 1996 [Ge, W., & Li, J. (1996). Pseudo-particle approach to hydrodynamics of particle–fluid systems. In M. Kwauk & J. Li (Eds.), Proceedings of the 5th international conference on circulating fluidized bed (pp. 260–265). Beijing: Science Press] and has been used to explore the microscopic mechanism in complex particle–fluid systems. But as a particle method, high computational cost remains a main obstacle for its large-scale application; therefore, parallel implementation of this method is highly desirable. Parallelization of two-dimensional PPM was carried out by spatial decomposition in this paper. The time costs of the major functions in the program were analyzed and the program was then optimized for higher efficiency by dynamic load balancing and resetting of particle arrays. Finally, simulation on a gas–solid fluidized bed with 102,400 solid particles and 1.8 × 10⁷ pseudo-particles was performed successfully with this code, indicating its scalability in future applications.     

Experimental study of the solid circulation rate in a pressurized circulating fluidized bed

The solid circulation rate is essential for design of pressurized circulating fluidized beds(PCFBs).With increasing pressure from atmospheric pressure to a few ...     

Modeling fluid and heat transport in the reactive, porous bed of downdraft (biomass) gasifier

A fluid flow and heat transfer model has been developed for the reactive, porous bed of the biomass gasifier to simulate pressure drop, temperature profile in the bed and flow rates. The conservation equations, momentum equation and energy equation are used to describe fluid and heat transport in porous gasifier bed. The model accounted for drag at wall, and the effect of radial as well as axial variation in bed porosity to predict pressure drop in bed. Heat transfer has been modeled using effective thermal conductivity approach. Model predictions are validated against the experiments, while effective thermal conductivity values are tested qualitatively using models available in literature. Parametric analysis has been carried out to investigate the effect of various parameters on bed temperature profile and pressure drop through the gasifier. The temperature profile is found to be very sensitive to gas flow rate, and heat generation in oxidation zone, while high bed temperature, gas flow rate and the reduction in feedstock particle size are found to cause a marked increase in pressure drop through the gasifier. The temperatures of the down stream zones are more sensitive to any change in heat generation in the bed as compared to upstream zone. Author recommends that the size of preheating zone may be extended up to pyrolysis zone in order to enhance preheating of input air, while thermal insulation should not be less than 15 cm.     

Euler–Lagrange/DEM simulation of wood gasification in a bubbling fluidized bed reactor

We present an Euler–Lagrange method for the simulation of wood gasification in a bubbling fluidized bed. The gas phase is modeled as a continuum using the 2D Navier–Stokes equations and the solid phase is modeled by a Discrete Element Method (DEM) using a soft-sphere approach for the particle collision dynamic. Turbulence is included via a Large-Eddy approach using the Smagorinsky sub-grid model. The model takes into account detailed gas phase chemistry, zero-dimensional modeling of the pyrolysis and gasification of each individual particle, particle shrinkage, and heat and mass transfer between the gas phase and the particulate phase. We investigate the influence of wood feeding rate and compare exhaust gas compositions and temperature results obtained with the model against experimental data of a laboratory scale bubbling fluidized bed reactor.     

Development and evaluation of a model for soil–air fluidized bed rheological behavior

The ground vehicle mine blast mitigation problem represents a research topic that has recently been generating a very high level of interest and activity. Many aspects of the physics of the problem have been extensively researched. One area that has been neglected, however, is that aspect of the blast threat that relates to the rheology and flow, subsequent to ignition of the explosive, of the relatively energetic mixture of air and soil, sometimes referred to as ejecta. Methods developed for the study of fluidized beds that are used in, e.g. the chemical and power generation process industries, were adapted in order to more clearly define the rheology of air–glass bead mixtures and also of air–soil mixtures that comprise the ejecta. Continuity and momentum balance equations developed for fluidized beds were adapted, using physical properties of glass beads and soils, into a form relates to the properties of mine blast ejecta. These equations were then discretized and solved, for a relatively simple geometry, in order to validate the model and gain a general sense of the flow behavior of particle–air blends. Parametric studies were performed to estimate the variation of the rheology of the air–particle mixtures as a function of the particle diameter and the sphericity of the particles. Finally, the flow properties of a couple of real soils were investigated via application of the two‐phase flow model. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Thermo-mechanical modeling of turbulent heat transfer in gas–solid flows including particle collisions

A thermo-mechanical turbulence model is developed and used for predicting heat transfer in a gas–solid flow through a vertical pipe with constant wall heat flux. The new four-way interaction model makes use of the thermal k_θ–τ_θ equations, in addition to the hydrodynamic k–τ transport, and accounts for the particle–particle and particle–wall collisions through a Eulerian/Lagrangian formulation. The simulation results indicate that the level of thermal turbulence intensity and the heat transfer are strongly affected by the particle collisions. Inter-particle collisions attenuate the thermal turbulence intensity near the wall but somewhat amplify the temperature fluctuations in the pipe core region. The hydrodynamic-to-thermal times-scale ratio and the turbulent Prandtl number in the region near the wall increase due to the inter-particle collisions. The results also show that the use of a constant or the single-phase gas turbulent Prandtl number produces error in the thermal eddy diffusivity and thermal turbulent intensity fields. Simulation results also indicate that the inter-particle contact heat conduction during collision has no significant effect in the range of Reynolds number and particle diameter studied.