Analysis of model parameters affecting the pressure profile in a circulating fluidized bed

This study focuses on continuum model validation of the flow of air and small catalyst particles in a circulating fluidized bed. Comparison with available experimental data of pressure drop and solids circulation rate in the riser clearly demonstrates the need to modify the homogeneous drag model to accurately predict the formation of clusters of particles, which are typically observed in the fluidization of small particles. The need to correct the drag law is also demonstrated in simulations of polydisperse powder flows wherein three solids species are used to represent a typical catalyst size distribution. Finally, particle‐wall friction is found to have the most significant effect on the vertical gas pressure gradient while particle–particle friction has only a minor effect. Published 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 58: 427–439, 2012     

A functional subgrid drift velocity model for filtered drag prediction in dense fluidized bed

Due to computational time limitations, fully resolved simulations using the two‐fluid model of the flow inside industrial‐scale fluidized beds are unaffordable. The filtered approach is used to account for the effect of small unresolved scales on the large resolved scales computed with “coarse” realistic meshes. Using a fully resolved simulation, we highlight the need to account for a subgrid drift velocity to obtain the correct bed expansion when using coarse meshes. This velocity, defined as the difference between the filtered gas velocity seen by the particle phase and the resolved filtered gas velocity, modify the effective relative velocity appearing in the drag law. We close it as a correction of the resolved relative velocity depending on the filtered particle concentration and the filter size. A dynamic procedure is used to adjust a tuning parameter. Bed expansion obtained with a posteriori test on coarse‐grid simulations matches well to fully resolved simulations. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2012     

Effect of agitation on the fluidization behavior of a gas–solid fluidized bed with a frame impeller

The effect of agitation on the fluidization performance of a gas–solid fluidized bed with a frame impeller is experimentally and numerically investigated. A 3‐D unsteady computational fluid dynamics method is used, combining a two‐fluid model and the kinetic theory of granular flow. The rotation of the impeller is implemented with a multiple reference frame method. The numerical model is validated using experimental data of the bed pressure drop and pressure fluctuation. Although the minimum fluidizing velocity and bed pressure drop are independent of the impeller agitation, a sufficiently high agitation speed yields higher fluidization performance with reduced bubble diameters and internal circulations of particles. The fluidized bed can be divided into three zones: inlet zone where the gas distribution plays a major role, agitated fluidization zone where the impeller agitation has a positive effect on fluidization, and free fluidization zone where the impeller agitation has no effect on fluidization. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 59: 1066–1074, 2013     

Transient dynamics of solid concentration in downer fluidized bed

This paper presents new results from experiments performed in a 15 cm diameter down-flow fast-fluidized bed. Tests were conducted at room temperature and near atmospheric pressure, with 125 μm glass beads. Superficial gas velocities range from 0 to 6 m/s. A needle capacitance probe was used to obtain measurement of instantaneous solids concentration (ε_s) in a small sampling volume of approximately 0.1 cm³. With the downer operating at steady-state, the capacitance probe provided a time-trace of the local solid fraction, indicating that ε_s was generally less than 0.01. However the measurements indicated that the local concentration did have excursions to significantly higher concentrations for short durations. This behavior is indicative of clusters in the down-flow fast-fluidized bed. While clusters are known to be a dominant feature of upward fast fluidization in risers, their presence has been questioned for solid/gas down flows. Sample data are presented to indicate the density, duration, and time fraction of clusters observed in this downer fluidized bed. Preliminary comparisons are made to the limited data available for comparable operating conditions in a riser.     

Simulations of scalar dispersion in fluidized solid–liquid suspensions

Direct, particle‐resolved simulations of solid–liquid fluidization with the aim of quantifying dispersion have been performed. In addition to simulating the multiphase flow dynamics (that is dealt with by a lattice‐Boltzmann method coupled to an event‐driven hard‐sphere algorithm), a transport equation of a passive scalar in the liquid phase has been solved by means of a finite‐volume approach. The spreading of the scalar—as a consequence of the motion of the fluidized, monosized spherical particles that agitate the liquid—is quantified through dispersion coefficients. Particle self‐diffusivities have also been determined. Solids volume fractions were in the range 0.2–0.5, whereas single‐sphere settling Reynolds numbers varied between approximately 3 and 20. The dispersion processes are highly anisotropic with lateral spreading much slower (by one order of magnitude) than vertical spreading. Scalar dispersion coefficients are of the same order of magnitude as particle self‐diffusivities. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 60: 1880–1890, 2014     

Analysis of the effect of small amounts of liquid on gas–solid fluidization using CFD‐DEM simulations

Gas–solid fluidization involving small amounts of liquid is simulated using a CFD‐DEM model. The model tracks the amount of liquid on each particle and wall element and incorporates finite rates of liquid transfer between particles and pendular liquid bridges which form between two particles as well as between a particle and a wall element. Viscous and capillary forces due to these bridges are modeled. Fluidization–defluidization curves show that minimum fluidization velocity and defluidized bed height increase with Bond number (Bo), the ratio of surface tension to gravitational forces, due to cohesion and inhomogeneous flow structures. Under fluidized conditions, hydrodynamics and liquid bridging behavior change dramatically with increasing Bo, and to a lesser extent with capillary number, the ratio of viscous to surface tension forces. Bed fluidity is kept relatively constant across wetting conditions when one maintains a constant ratio of superficial velocity to minimum fluidization velocity under wet conditions. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 5290–5302, 2017     

Nonintrusive characterization of fluidized bed hydrodynamics using vibration signature analysis

There are many techniques to characterize the hydrodynamics of fluidized beds, but new techniques are still needed for more reliable measurement. Bed vibrations were measured by an accelerometer in a gas–solid fluidized bed to characterize the hydrodynamics of the fluidized bed in a nonintrusive manner. Measurements were carried out at different superficial gas velocities and particle sizes. Pressure fluctuations were measured simultaneously. Vibration signals were processed using statistical analysis. For the sake of the evaluation, the vibration technique was used to calculate minimum fluidization velocity. It was shown that minimum fluidization velocity can be determined from the variation of standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis of vibration signals against superficial gas velocity of the bed. Kurtosis was proved to be a new method of analyzing vibration signals. Results indicate that analyzing the vibration signals can be an effective nonintrusive technique to characterize the hydrodynamics of fluidized beds. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2010     

CO2 capture in a multistage CFB: Part I: Number of stages

The most common technology for postcombustion of CO₂ capture is the amine solvent scrubber. The energy consumption for capturing CO₂ from flue gases using amine solvent technology is 15–30% of the power plant electricity production. Hence, there is a need to develop more efficient methods of removing CO₂. A circulating fluidized bed using sodium or potassium carbonates is potentially such a process, as their high decomposition pressures allow regeneration at low temperatures using waste heat rather than steam from the power plant. But equilibrium data for the sorbents require the use of several cooled stages to achieve high CO₂ conversions. Here, a method of computing such a number of stages for a given CO₂ conversion was developed using multiphase computational fluid dynamics. It was found that it required six equilibrium stages to remove 96% of CO₂ with the initial mole fraction of 0.15 in a sorption riser. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 5267–5279, 2017     

CPFD flow pattern simulation in downer reactors

This study contributes with a computational fluid dynamic simulation based on the numerical solution of continuity and momentum balance equations in a three‐dimensional (3‐D) framework. The proposed down flow gas–solid suspension model includes a unit configuration and C_D drag coefficients recommended for these units. Computational particle fluid dynamics (CPFD) calculations using suitable boundary conditions and a Barracuda (version: 14.5.2) software allow predicting local solid densification and asymmetric “wavy flows.” In addition, this model forecasts for the conditions of this study higher particle velocity than gas velocity, once the flow reaches 1 m from the gas injector. These findings are accompanied with observations about the intrinsic rotational character of the flow. CPFD numerical 3‐D calculations show that both gas and particle velocities involve the following: (a) an axial velocity component, (b) a radial velocity component (about 5% of axial velocity component), and (c) an angular velocity component. The calculated velocity components and the rotational flow pattern are established for a wide range of solid flux/gas flux ratios. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 59: 1635–1647, 2013     

Fictitious particle method: A numerical model for flows including dense solids with large size difference

Large solids coexist with small solids in a number of dense gas‐solid flow applications such as fluidized beds and pneumatic conveyers. A new numerical model that is based on the discrete element method–computational fluid dynamics mesoscopic model and extended by introducing an idea appearing in volume penalization method is presented. In computational cells including large and small solids, the amount of momentum exchange between the fluid and the solids is estimated by assuming that a large solid consist of small, dense fictitious particles. We describe the proposed model in detail and show the optimal model parameters found through a number of parameter‐dependency studies. Validation study is performed for the motion of a large sphere in a bubbling fluidized bed and good agreements are confirmed for floating and sinking motions of the sphere between the present model and the experiment. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 60: 1606–1620, 2014     

Computation of system turbulences and dispersion coefficients in circulating fluidized bed downer using CFD simulation

In this study, the Eulerian computational fluid dynamics model with the kinetic theory of granular flow model was effectively used to compute the system turbulences and dispersion coefficients in a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) downer. In addition, the obtained model was used to simulate all the system velocities.     

Statistical analysis of the phase holdup characteristics of a gas–liquid–solid fluidized bed

Experiments have been carried out to study the individual phase holdup characteristics in a cocurrent three‐phase fluidized bed. An antenna type modified air sparger has been used in the gas–liquid distributor section, for uniform mixing of the fluids with the gas moving as fine bubbles to the fluidizing section. This arrangement also reduces the pressure drop encountered through a conventional distributor used for the purpose. To overcome the non‐uniformity of flow through the column (i.e., the central region), a distributor plate with 20% open area has been fabricated with concentric circular punched holes of increased diameter from centre to the wall. Model equations have been developed by factorial design analysis for predicting various individual phase holdups.     

CFD–DEM simulation of tube erosion in a fluidized bed

The erosion of the immersed tubes in a bubbling‐fluidized bed is studied numerically using an Eulerian–Lagrangian approach coupling with a particle‐scale erosion model. In this approach, the motion of gas and particles is simulated by the CFD–DEM method, and an erosion model SIEM (shear impact energy model) is proposed to predict the erosion of the tubes. The model is validated by the good agreement of the simulation results and previous experimental data. By analyzing the simulation results, some characteristics of the tube erosion in the fluidized bed are obtained, such as the distribution of the erosion rate around the tube, the variation of the erosion rate with the position of the tube, the effect of the friction coefficient of particles on the erosion, the relationship between the maximum and the average erosion rate, etc. The microscale behavior of particles around the tubes is also revealed and the linear relationship between the erosion and the shear impact energy is confirmed by the simulation results and experiment. The agreement between simulation and experiment proves that the microscale approach proposed in this article has high accuracy for predicting erosion of the tubes in the fluidized bed, and has potential to be applied to modeling the process in other chemical equipment facing solid particle erosion. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 418–437, 2017     

Experimental and computational study of the bed dynamics of semi‐cylindrical gas–solid fluidized bed

With computational fluid dynamics (CFD) it is possible to get a detailed view of the flow behaviour of the fluidized beds. A profound and fundamental understanding of bed dynamics such as bed pressure drop, bed expansion ratio, bed fluctuation ratio, and minimum fluidization velocity of homogeneous binary mixtures has been made in a semi‐cylindrical fluidized column for gas–solid systems, resulting in a predictive model for fluidized beds. In the present work attempt has been made to study the effect of different system parameters (viz., size and density of the bed materials and initial static bed height) on the bed dynamics. The correlations for the bed expansion and bed fluctuations have been developed on the basis of dimensional analysis using these system parameters. Computational study has also been carried out using a commercial CFD package Fluent (Fluent, Inc.). A multifluid Eulerian model incorporating the kinetic theory for solid particles was applied in order to simulate the gas–solid flow. CFD simulated bed pressure drop has been compared with the experimental bed pressure drops under different conditions for which the results show good agreements.     

Granular pressure in a liquid‐fluidized bed as revealed by diffusing wave spectroscopy

The granular pressure and granular temperature underpin various models of granular flows while they are playing an increasing role in modeling of other phenomena in granular systems such as heat transfer, segregation, erosion, attrition, and aggregation. The development and validation of these theories demand experimental determination of these two quantities. Diffusing wave spectroscopy (DWS) is now an accepted technique for measurement of granular temperature in dense granular systems. Using granular temperature data obtained from DWS with the kinetic theory of granular flow, we have derived the granular pressure data for a liquid‐fluidized bed. The determined variation of the mean bed granular pressure with mean bed solid volume fraction compares favorably with previously published experimental data and theoretical models of others. Where discrepancies do occur, they may be attributed to differences in particle inertia, suggesting further work on granular pressure models is required. Finally, we report the variation of the granular pressure with height above the distributor for several mean solids volume fractions. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2012     

The use of peat granules in a fluidized bed bioreactor

This study describes the particle characteristics and fluidized hydrodynamics of peat granules. Peat granules, moistened with water, are a potential packing material in a gas–solid fluidized bed bioreactor used for treating air pollution. Information on the fluidization of wet peat granules is lacking. In order to advance this new type of bioreactor and to scale up its design for industrial use, fluidization studies of suitable packing material are required. Using abiotic experiments, three sizes of peat granules have been fluidized with air and fluidization characteristics were observed at different superficial gas velocities. Relative to other biomass particles, peat granules have a high particle density and sphericity, which contributes to favourable fluidization behaviour, without gas channelling. Fluidization experiments demonstrate that as the mean size of peat particles increased, minimum fluidization velocity increased. Increasing the moisture content of the peat granules resulted in a transition from bubbling bed fluidization to poor fluidization behaviour. Other types of moist biomass particles such as sawdust are difficult to fluidize and typically exhibit Geldart group C behaviour. In contrast, it was observed that wet peat granules could be fluidized in a bubbling bed regime, typical of group B particles.     

基于DEM模拟气固鼓泡床中颗粒碰撞参数对流场间歇性的影响

采用计算流体力学和离散元(CFD-DEM)方法研究鼓泡床内的气固流动状态, 考察了颗粒弹性系数和恢复系数对流场间歇性的影响, 并利用小波变化分析方法分析了颗粒弹性系数和恢复系数对流场相干结构的影响。研究结果表明:颗粒弹性系数和恢复系数对颗粒速度脉动能、床层平均高度、平坦因子以及流场间歇性有一定影响。随着颗粒弹性系数取值的变大, 高频区能量和平坦因子先降低后增加, 床层高度先增加后降低, 流场间歇性先减弱后增强;颗粒恢复系数取值越大, 高频区能量和平坦因子越低, 床层高度越大, 流场间歇性越弱。     

A composite equation of state for the modeling of sonic carbon dioxide jets in carbon capture and storage scenarios

The development of a novel composite two‐phase method to predict the thermodynamic physical properties of carbon dioxide (CO₂) above and below the triple point, applied herein in the context of Reynolds‐Averaged Navier–Stokes computational modeling has been detailed here. A number of approaches have been combined to make accurate predictions in all three phases (solid, liquid, and gas) and at all phase changes for application in the modeling of releases of CO₂ at high pressure into the atmosphere. Predictions of a free release of CO₂ into the atmosphere from a reservoir at a pressure of 10 MPa and a temperature of 283 K, typical of transport conditions in carbon capture and storage scenarios, is examined. A comparison of the results shows that the sonic CO₂ jet that forms requires a three‐phase equation of state including the latent heat of fusion to realistically simulate its characteristics. © 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 59: 3928–3942, 2013