A tunable aggregation model incorporated in Monte Carlo simulations of spray fluidized bed agglomeration

Abstract

Constant volume Monte Carlo (CVMC) model is a discrete and stochastic approach to enhance the understanding of spray fluidized bed (SFB) agglomeration. Previous CVMC model used a simplified approach, considering the formed agglomerates as characteristic spheres with porosity as a function of their fractal properties. This means that other morphological descriptors such as coordination number could not be assessed. In the present work, a tunable aggregation model is developed to reconstruct the SFB agglomerates consisting of monodisperse spherical primary particles by a particle-cluster algorithm using a novel approach of tuning the fractal dimension at a given prefactor (= 1). Various morphological descriptors obtained from this aggregation model are validated using experimental data. Furthermore, this aggregation model is incorporated into the CVMC framework to evaluate both, the morphological descriptors and formation kinetics of SFB agglomerates produced under different process conditions (inlet fluidized gas temperature and binder content).