Comparison and validation of various drag models for fluidization characteristics of bubble fluidized beds with a high-speed particle image velocimetry experiment

Bubbling liquefaction of dense particles is one of the most common forms of industrial fluidization in gas–solid flow systems. Computational fluid dynamics and the discrete element method are important tools for studying dense gas–solid flows. In these methods, the momentum transfer between phases relies on a drag model, so a reasonable choice of drag model is crucial for accurately predicting the hydrodynamic behavior of dense gas–solid flows. This paper investigates the effect of different drag models on the flow behavior prediction of dense gas–solid flow for the “Small-Scale Challenge Problem-I” published by the National Energy Technology Laboratory in 2013. The gas–solid fluidization characteristics, such as instantaneous particle flow processes, particle velocity vector distributions, changes in the fluidized bed height, and average gas phase pressure drops, were compared for different drag models. A detailed validation analysis of each dominant drag model was carried out in conjunction with the experimental data. The results show that the drag model significantly affects the numerically predicted results of particles’ hydrodynamic behavior, especially in terms of the bed height variation and the remixing behavior of particles. These research results are expected to improve the predictive accuracy of gas–solid flow hydrodynamic behavior and provide guidance for designing and optimizing fluidized beds, which has theoretical and practical significance.