Eulerian–Eulerian simulation of heat transfer between a gas–solid fluidized bed and an immersed tube-bank with horizontal tubes

A two dimensional Eulerian–Eulerian simulation of tube-to-bed heat transfer is carried out for a cold gas fluidized bed with immersed horizontal tubes. The horizontal tubes are modelled as obstacles with square cross section in the numerical model. Simulations are performed for two gas velocities exceeding the minimum fluidisation velocity by 0.2 and 0.6 m/s and two operating pressures of 0.1 and 1.6 MPa. Local instantaneous and time averaged heat transfer coefficients are monitored at four different positions around the tube and compared against experimental data reported in literature. The effect of constitutive equations for the solid phase thermal conductivity on heat transfer is investigated and a fundamental approach to modelling the solid phase thermal conductivity is implemented in the present work. Significant improvements in the agreement between the predicted and measured local instantaneous heat transfer coefficients are observed in the present study as compared to the previous works in which the local instantaneous heat transfer coefficients were overpredicted. The local time averaged heat transfer coefficients are within 20% of the measured values at the atmospheric pressure. In contrast, underprediction of the time averaged heat transfer coefficient is observed at the higher pressure.