Coupling between countercurrent gas and solid flows in a moving granular bed: The role of shear bands at the walls

We extended the standard approach to countercurrent gas–solid flow in vertical vessels by explicitly coupling the gas flow and the rheology of the moving bed of granular solids, modelled as a continuum, pseudo-fluid. The method aims at quantitatively accounting for the presence of shear in the granular material that induces changes in local porosity, affecting the gas flow pattern through the solids. Results are presented for the vertical channel configuration, discussing the gas maldistribution both through global and specific indexes, highlighting the effect of the relevant parameters such as solids and gas flowrate, channel width, and wall friction. Non-uniform gas flow distribution resulting from uneven bed porosity is also discussed in terms of gas residence time distribution (RTD). The theoretical RTD in a vessel of constant porosity and Literature data obtained in actual moving beds are qualitatively compared to our results, supporting the relevance under given circumstances of the coupling between gas and solids flow.     

Dust distribution of solid and adhesive mixed dust in a granular bed filter

Granular bed filters can effectively filter adhesive dust in high-temperature flue gas. In this study, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) powder was used as adhesive dust, and the mixture of PVC and ash powder was used to simulate solid and adhesive mixed dust. The effects of gas temperature, velocity, and inlet adhesive dust mass content on dust distribution in granular bed (GBF) were discussed. Results show that the mixed dust mainly accumulates on the upper part of the granular bed, and the mass of the collected dust decreases exponentially from the upper layer to the bottom layer in the GBF. The adhesive dust content collected in each layer differs from that of the incoming dust, and their deviation varies approximately linearly along with the depth of the bed. The total dust distribution and adhesive dust content deviation are influenced by gas temperature and inlet adhesive dust content but independent of gas velocity. The correlations of dust distribution of solid and adhesive mixed dust are presented based on the experimental results.     

SPH-based simulation of granular collapse on an inclined bed

The paper presents a numerical model for simulating a granular flow and its deposition on an inclined bed. A granular material is described as an elastic–plastic continuum and its constitutive law, namely Hooke's law, is discretized on the basis of the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method. In the equation of motion, however, the artificial viscosity, which is widely used in SPH, is not applied. The diffusive term derived from Hooke's law is introduced with a diffusion coefficient that varies depending on the stress and strain rate based on the Drucker–Prager yield function. The model is verified and validated through two numerical tests. It is shown that the basic elastic–perfectly plastic characteristics are reproduced with a simple shearing test. The effects of the diffusion coefficient and spatial resolution are investigated to show the validity of the model. In the simulation of the gravitational collapse of a granular column on an inclined bed, the performance of the model from the final deposition profile, the time history of the front position of the granular flow, the maximum runout distance, and the velocity profile are investigated for several cases of basal inclinations. The calculated results show good agreement with the experimental results.     

CFD-DEM investigation into flow characteristics in mixed pulsed fluidized bed under electrostatic effects

Static electricity has an important effect on gas–solid fluidized bed reactor fluidization performance. In the process of fluidization, electrostatic interaction between particles will obviously accelerate particle agglomerate formation, which consequently reduces the fluidization performance. Pulsed gas flow injection is an efficient method to enhance particle mixing, thereby weakening the occurrence of particle agglomerate. In this study, the two-dimensional hybrid pulsed fluidized bed is established. The flow characteristics are studied by using the coupled CFD-DEM numerical simulation model considering electrostatic effects. Influences of different pulsed frequencies and gas flow ratios on fluidized bed fluidization performance are investigated to obtain the optimal pulsed gas flow condition. Results show that in the presence of static electricity, the bubble generation position is lower, which is conducive to the particle flow. Pulsed gas flow can increase the particle velocity and improve the diffusion ability. The bubble generation time is different at different frequencies, and the frequency of 2.5 Hz has the most obvious effect on the flow characteristics. Different gas flow ratios have significant impacts on the particle movement amplitude. When the pulse gas flow accounts for a large ratio, the particle agglomerate tends to be larger. Therefore, in order to improve the fluidization effect, the ratio of pulsed gas flow to stable gas flow should be appropriately reduced to 0.5 or less.     

The influence of the drag force due to the interstitial gas on granular flows down a chute

Fully-developed steady flow of granular material down an inclined chute has been a subject of much research interest, but the effect of the interstitial gas has usually been ignored. In this paper, new expressions for the drag force and energy dissipation caused by the interstitial gas (ignoring the turbulent fluctuations of the gas phase) are derived and used to modify the governing equations derived from the kinetic theory approach for granular–gas mixture flows, where particles are relatively massive so that velocity fluctuations are caused by collisions rather than the gas flow. This new model is applied to fully-developed, steady mixture flows down an inclined chute and the results are compared with other simulations. Our results show that the effect of the interstitial gas plays a significant role in modifying the characteristics of fully developed flow. Although the effect of the interstitial gas is less pronounced for large particles than small ones, the flowfields with large particles are still very different from granular flows which do not incorporate any interactions with the interstitial gas.     

Experimental study on filtration performance of the moving bed granular filter with axial flow

The filtration performance of the moving bed granular filter with axial flow (MBGF-AF) is investigated through a large cold experiment. The effect of different operation parameters on the filtration performance (collection efficiency, pressure drop) of the axial-flow moving bed filter is investigated in combination with the dust deposition effect and the mechanism of trapping dust by the capturing particles. The results show that the collection efficiency of MBGF-AF is enhanced by decreasing the superficial gas velocity, increasing the inlet dust concentration properly, or decreasing the moving velocity of the capturing particles. A model covering the above operation parameters is established to calculate the collection efficiency of the moving bed granular filter. It is used in a wide range of operating parameters for the MBGFs.     

Filtration characteristics of a binary multi-layer granular bed filter based on CFD-DEM coupling simulation

The coupled CFD-DEM method with the JKR (Johnson-Kendall-Roberts) model for describing the contact adhesion of dust to filter particles (FPs) is used to simulate the distribution pattern of dust particle deposition in the granular bed filter (GBF) with multi-layer media. The minimum inlet flow velocity must meet the requirement that the contact probability between dust and FPs is in the high contact probability region. The air flow forms vortices on the leeward side of the FPs and changes abruptly at the intersection of different particle size FPs layers. Dust particles form large deposits at the intersection of the first and second layers and the different particle size filter layers. Dual element multilayer GBF can further optimize the bed structure by interlacing filter layers with different particle sizes. Compared with single particle size multi-layer GBF, the bed pressure drop is reduced by 40.24%–50.65% and the dust removal efficiency is increased by 21.93%–55.09%.     

Numerical simulation of uranium tetrafluoride fluorination in a multistage spouted bed using the improved CFD-DEM chemical reaction model

A CFD-DEM reaction coupling model was established to simulate UF₄ fluorination process, in which heat and mass transfer, heterogeneous chemical reaction, and particle shrinkage model were considered. The gas behavior was described by the conservation laws of mass, momentum, and energy. The solid phase is modeled with the discrete element method, considering the gas–solid interphase force, contact force, heat transfer, and chemical reaction models based on the discretized surface. Each particle can be individually tracked and associated with specific physical properties. The proposed CFD-DEM reaction coupling model based on particle shrinking reaction model with discretized surface was validated by the experimental and literature results at first. Then a multistage conical spouted bed was proposed and the process of UF₄ fluoridation reaction in it was investigated. The fluidization characteristics and the concentration distribution of gaseous products in the spouted bed with an extended gas velocity range were obtained and analyzed. In addition, the effects of different parameters, such as superficial gas velocity, temperature, fluorine concentration, on fluoridation rate and the fluorine conversion rate were investigated based on the proposed CFD-DEM reaction coupling model. The results obtained in this work are beneficial for method development of the chemical reaction simulation research in particle scale using the CFD-DEM model, and useful for operation and equipment parameters design of the uranium tetrafluoride fluorinate industrial process in the future.     

Large-scale statistical inverse computation of inelastic accretion in transient granular flows

In this work, the accretion of fine-grained particulate matter into larger objects in high-speed granular flows, due to sudden disturbances in their mean velocity field, is investigated. A multibody collision model is developed whereby the coefficients of restitution and friction, as well as quantities such as the contact area and collision duration time, are implicit functions of the relative collision velocities and surfacial thermochemical reactions during impact. A recursive fixed-point multilayered staggering scheme is developed to simulate the resulting coupled non-linear system. Inverse problems are then constructed whereby transient flow conditions, reaction rates, particulate volume fractions, hardnesses, etc., are sought which deliver prespecified aggregate growth from a base starting particulate size. Classical gradient-based methods perform poorly, to this class of problems due to the fact that the associated objective functions depend in a non-convex and non-differentiable manner on the mentioned starting-state parameters. Furthermore, the results are very sensitive to the size of the control volumes selected. Therefore, due to the lack of robustness of classical gradient-based minimization schemes, a statistical genetic algorithm is developed whereby (I) the starting state-variables are represented by a “genetic string”, and concepts of evolutionary behavior, such as selective reproduction, are applied to a population of such strings in order to determine an optimal set of starting state-parameters and (II) sequences of control volumes, each containing a finite number of particles, are adaptively computed until the sequential change in the ensemble average of a population of control volumes all fall below a given tolerance. Three-dimensional numerical examples are given to illustrate the behavior of the model and the overall solution process.     

二维喷动床CFD-DEM模拟中曳力模型的影响

CFD-DEM已经广泛应用到喷动床的研究中,其模拟的准确性与用于处理颗粒-流体相互作用的曳力模型密切相关。为了探究不同曳力模型对喷动床CFD-DEM模拟结果的影响,基于非结构化网格的喷动床仿真,使用7个曳力模型分别对锥底喷动床内气固两相运动进行了数值模拟。综合床层压降、喷动高度和颗粒速度特性三个方面,Wen-Yu模型和Gibilaro模型预测的气固两相运动最剧烈,其次是Di Felice模型、Syamlal-O’Brien模型、Gidaspow模型和Huilin-Gidaspow模型,BVK模型预测的气固两相运动最平缓。由于模拟的气固两相体系属于密相体系,Huilin-Gidaspow模型的光滑过渡函数没有产生效果,所以Gidaspow模型和Huilin-Gidaspow模型在各个方面的预测结果基本一致。     

The experimental investigation of heat transport and water infiltration in granular packed bed due to supplied hot water from the top: Influence of supplied water flux, particle sizes and supplied water temperature

In the present study an experimental investigation of heat transport and water infiltration in granular packed bed (unsaturated porous media) due to supplied water flux is carried out. The study is focus on the one-dimensional flow in a vertical granular packed bed column assuming local thermal equilibrium between water and particles at any specific space. This experimental study described the dynamics of heat transport and water infiltration in various testing condition. Experimentally, the influences of particle sizes, supplied water flux and supplied water temperature on heat transport and water infiltration during unsaturated flow are clarified in details. The results showed that the granular packed bed with larger particle size results in faster infiltration rate and form a wider infiltration depth. Furthermore, the increase of the supplied water flux and supplied water temperature corresponds to faster infiltration rate, but the results not linearly related to the interference between the heat transport and hydrodynamics characteristics in granular packed bed.     

Predictions of the P1 approximation for radiative heat transfer in heterogeneous granular media

The P1 approximation is a computationally efficient model for thermal radiation. Here, we present a P1 formulation in the context of the combined computational fluid dynamics and discrete element method (CFD-DEM), including closures for dependent scattering and coarse-graining. Using available analytical and semi-analytical solutions, we find agreement for steady-state and transient quantities in size-disperse systems. Heat flux is identified as the most sensitive quantity to predict, displaying unphysical spatial oscillations. These oscillations are due to a temperature slip at the locations of abrupt change in solid fraction. We propose two techniques that mitigate this effect: smoothing of the radiative properties, and pseudo-scattering. Furthermore, using up to a million times enlarged particles, we demonstrate practically limitless compatibility with coarse-graining. Finally, we compare predictions made with our code to experimental data for a pebble bed under vacuum conditions, and in presence of nitrogen. We find that a carefully calibrated simulation can replicate trends observed in experiments, with relative temperature error of less than 10%.     

Influence of cycle time distribution on coating uniformity of particles in a spray fluidized bed by using CFD-DEM simulations

Cycle Time Distribution (CTD) plays a critical role for determining uniformity of particle coating in spray fluidized beds. However, the CTD is influenced by both geometrical structure and operating conditions of fluidized bed. In this study, a spray fluidized bed of coating process is simulated by a comprehensive Computational Fluid Dynamics-Discrete Element Model (CFD-DEM). To achieve different behaviors of CTD, some modifications are designed on a pseudo-2D internally circulating fluidized bed, which traditionally composes of a high-velocity upward bed and low-velocity downward bed. These modifications include making the air distributor slope and/or laying a baffle in the downward bed. First, the CTD and evolution of particle size distribution under different bed structures are compared. The CTD directly influences the coating uniformity. By making the particles flowing along a parallel direction in the downward bed through the geometrical modifications, the CTD becomes narrower and the coating uniformity is significantly improved. Second, under the optimized bed structure, the influence of operating conditions on the coating uniformity is studied. Properly increasing the fluidization gas velocity and the fluidization gas temperature and reducing the liquid spray rate can improve the coating uniformity.     

Simulated configurational temperature of particles and a model of constitutive relations of rapid-intermediate-dense granular flow based on generalized granular temperature

In gas–solid flat-base spout bed with a jet, the flow of particles must go through an intermediate regime where both kinetic/collisional and frictional contributions play a role. In this paper, the statistical framework is proposed to define the generalized granular temperature which sums up the configurational temperature and translational granular temperature. The configurational temperature, translational and rotational granular temperatures of particles are simulated by means of CFD-DEM (discrete element method) in a 3D flat-base spout bed with a jet. The configurational temperatures of particles are calculated from instantaneous overlaps of particles. The translational and rotational granular temperatures of particles are calculated from instantaneous translational and angular velocities of particles. Roughly, the simulated translational and rotational granular temperatures increase, reach maximum, and then decrease with the increase of solids volume fractions. However, the configurational temperature increases with the increase of solids volume fractions. At high solid volume fraction, the predicted configurational temperatures are larger than the translational and rotational granular temperatures, indicating that the rate of energy dissipation do contributes by contact deformation of elastic particles. The generalized granular temperature is proposed to show the relation between the variance of the fluctuation velocity of deformation and the variance of the translational fluctuation velocity of particles. The constitutive relations of particle pressure, viscosity, granular conductivity of fluctuating energy and energy dissipation in rapid-intermediate-dense granular flows are correlated to the generalized granular temperature. The variations of particle pressure, shear viscosity, energy dissipation and granular conductivity are analyzed on the basis of generalized granular temperature in a flat-base spout bed with a jet. The axial velocities of particles predicted by a gas–solid two-fluid model of rapid-intermediate-dense granular flows agree with experimental results in a spout bed.     

An analysis of the chaotic motion of particles of different sizes in a gas fluidized bed

The dynamic behavior of individual particles during the mixing/segregation process of particle mixtures in a gas fluidized bed is analyzed. The analysis is based on the results generated from discrete particle simulation, with the focus on the trajectory of and forces acting on individual particles. Typical particles are selected representing three kinds of particle motion： a flotsam particle which is initially at the bottom part of the bed and finally fluidized at the top part of the bed; a jetsam particle which is initially at the top part of the bed and finally stays in the bottom de-fluidized layer of the bed; and a jetsam particle which is intermittently joining the top fluidized and bottom de-fluidized layers. The results show that the motion of a particle is chaotic at macroscopic or global scale, but can be well explained at a microscopic scale in terms of its interaction forces and contact conditions with other particles, particle-fluid interaction force, and local flow structure. They also highlight the need for establishing a suitable method to link the information generated and modeled at different time and length scales.     

Wave propagation through mangrove forests in the presence of a viscoelastic bed

The influence of viscoelastic ocean beds on the characteristics of surface waves passing through mangrove forests is analyzed under the assumption of linearized water wave theory in two dimensions. The trunks of the mangroves are assumed to be in the upper-layer inviscid fluid domain, whilst the roots are inside the viscoelastic bed. The associated equation of motion is obtained by coupling the Voigt’s model for flow within the viscoelastic medium with the equation of motion in the presence of mangroves. The modified dynamic conditions are coupled with the kinematic conditions to obtain the boundary condition at the free surface and the interface of the two fluids consisting of the upper layer inviscid fluid and the viscoelastic fluid bed. To understand the effects of bed viscosity as well as elasticity on energy dissipation, the complex dispersion relation associated with the plane progressive wave is derived and analyzed. Effect of physical parameters associated with mangroves and viscoelastic bed on wave motion in surface and internal modes are computed and analyzed to understand their roles in attenuating wave effects. The present model will be useful in the better understanding of wave propagation through mangroves in the coastal zone having muddy seabed.     

An analysis of the chaotic motion of particles of different sizes in a gas fluidized bed

The dynamic behavior of individual particles during the mixing/segregation process of particle mixtures in a gas fluidized bed is analyzed. The analysis is based on the results generated from discrete particle simulation, with the focus on the trajectory of and forces acting on individual particles.Typical particles are selected representing three kinds of particle motion:a flotsam particle which is initially at the bottom part of the bed and finally fluidized at the top part of the bed; a jetsam particle which is initially at the top part of the bed and finally stays in the bottom de-fluidized layer of the bed; and a jetsam particle which is intermittently joining the top fluidized and bottom de-fluidized layers. The results show that the motion of a particle is chaotic at macroscopic or global scale, but can be well explained at a microscopic scale in terms of its interaction forces and contact conditions with other particles, particle-fluid interaction force, and local flow structure. They also highlight the need for establishing a suitable method to link the information generated and modeled at different time and length scales.     

Penetration of Cylindrical Projectiles into Saturated Sandy Media

The time and depth of vertical one-dimensional projectile penetration into sandy media in the near shore region are derived. A precise definition for the physical properties and for the behavior of the sandy medium following the projectile impact are evaluated. Three separate time intervals following projectile impact are identified. During the first 3 ms of penetration, the deviatoric friction stress is shown to be negligible and the integrated Mie–Grüneisen equation of state (or, equivalently, the Hugoniot-adiabat) may be applied to compute the normal penetration resistance force from the sand pressure. In order to compute sand pressure as a function of the sand density D by the integrated Mie–Grüneisen equation of state, the Mie–Grüneisen dimensionless constants γ₀ and s and the dimensional speed of sound C ₀ in the sandy medium are required. In order to illustrate the one-dimensional shock wave propagation in both wet and dry sands, Hugoniot data for wet and dry silica sands are evaluated by a three degrees of freedom algorithm to compute these required constants. The numerical results demonstrate that the amplitude of the shock wave pressure in the wet silica sand (41% porosity) is approximately one-third of the shock wave pressure amplitudes in the dry silica sands (22% and 41% porosity). In addition, the shock wave pressure dampens quicker in the wet sand than in the dry sands.     

Formation of the finely dispersed gas phase in upward and downward fluid flows

The influence of the fluid and gas flow rate parameters on the diameter of bubbles separating from a single capillary immersed in a fluid flow in a channel of 1×1 cm cross-section is investigated. The dependences of the mean bubble diameter on the fluid velocity and the gas flow rate through the capillary are obtained. The frequency of the bubble detachment from the capillary is estimated. It is shown that the histogram of the bubble size distribution changes qualitatively with the excess of a certain critical bubble detachment frequency, which is associated with the transition from the discrete to jet mode of detachment.     

Concentration distribution in the wake of a sphere buried in a granular bed through which fluid flows

The concentration distribution in the wake of a soluble sphere immersed in a granular bed of inert particles, through which fluid flows with “uniform velocity”, has been obtained numerically, for solute transport by both advection and diffusion/dispersion. Fluid flow in the granular bed around the sphere was assumed to follow Darcy’s law and, at each point, dispersion of solute was considered in both the cross-stream and streamwise directions. The elliptic PDE equation, resulting from a differential material balance on the solute, was solved numerically over a wide range of values of the relevant parameters (Peclet number and Schmidt number). The solution gives the concentration contour plots and, for each concentration level, the width and downstream length of the corresponding contour surface were determined. General expressions are presented to predict contaminant “plume” size downstream of the polluting source.