CFD Simulation Research on Flow Characteristics of Fluidized Beds

The Euler-Euler two-fluid model incorporating the kinetic theory of granular flow was applied to simulate the gas-solid flow in fluidized beds. The pressure drop, particle distribution and motion characteristics were studied in this paper. In order to investigate the effect of structure of the fluidized bed on flow characteristics, fluidized beds with different diameters and structures were applied. User defined functions (UDF) were applied to study the flow characteristics when the particle size and mass changed over time. The results showed that with the increase of particle size, higher minimum fluidization velocity was required, but lower pressure drop was obtained. For a certain fluidizing medium, the bed critical fluidization velocity depended only on the size and nature of the particles. The structure of a fluidized bed had an influence on the particle distribution and motion characteristics.