Modeling of multi-species, multi-sized particulates subject to fluidization is important in many technology applications such as coal and biomass combustion, gasification, granulation and many other processes. The modeling of these processes provides the engineer with the ability to predict and design equipment for optimum performance of these applications.

The model workhorse for multiphase flows involving particles is the Eulerian-granular model. The Euler-granular model has been used successfully to model various fluidized bed applications, it can prove costly when faced with a large size class of particles that have different hydrodynamic behavior. The Lagrangian modeling of particles does not suffer from this limitation.

In this work we describe how the DPM model in ANSYS Fluent, which is valid for low volume fractions of solids, has been extended to model dense flow. Validation of these model with experiments, as well as comparisons with the more established Euleriann-Granular models are also presented. The advantages and disadvantages of the modeling approaches are highlighted.