Numerical simulation and experimental study of a micro circulating fluidized bed
Yupeng Xua,*, Jordan Mussera, Tingwen Lia,b, Balaji Gopalana,c, Rupen Pandaya,d, Jonathan Tuckera,e, Greggory Breaulta,d, William A. Rogersa
a. National Energy Technology Laboratory, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA
b. AECOM, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA
c. West Virginia University Research Corporation, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA
d. REM Engineering Services, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA
e. West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA
Abstract
Circulating fluidized beds (CFB) are widely employed in industry for a wide variety of gas-solid contacting operations. Over the past few decades, CFB hydrodynamics have been studied using various experimental techniques and by numerical simulations. Recently, several efforts have modeled full-loop CFBs using the two-fluid model (TFM) whereby gas and solids are treated as interpenetrating continua. However, this technique only resolves solid motion at the computational cell level. With the advancement of high-performance computing, higher fidelity models, like Computational Fluid Dynamics-Discrete Element Method (CFD-DEM) which tracks the trajectory of individual particles, have become increasingly popular as research tools. This is because particle-scale information including residence time, collision forces, and dispersion intensities are readily available for detailed analysis of complex flow phenomena.
In this first of its kind work, a small scale, full-loop circulating fluidized bed is investigated using physical experiments and CFD-DEM simulations conducted with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchanges code, MFIX-DEM. Experimental and simulation results are compared using pressure drops data, solids circulation rate and solids standpipe inventory height. Additionally, the performance of different drag laws is examined.
Fig.1. Direct comparison between simulation and experiments
See more of this Group/Topical: Particle Technology Forum