CFD Modeling of Flow Pattern and Phase Holdup of Three Phase Fluidized Bed Contactor

Abstract

The present work has been carried out to characterize the dynamics of three-phase flow in cylindrical fluidized bed, run under homogeneous bubble flow and heterogeneous flow conditions using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulation. The investigation has been done to study the flow pattern of three-phase fluidized bed along with parametric studies. The simulations were performed for air-water-glass beads in a fluidized bed of H = 0.6 m, Di = 0.1 m and ds = 0.05 m to study the flow pattern. Eulerian-Eulerian, three-phase simulations with k-? turbulence for liquid phase were carried out using the flow simulation software CFD-6.2.16, with a focus on characterizing the dynamics properties of gas-liquid-solid flows. Detail study of the flow pattern in three-phase fluidized bed has been carried out and the flow pattern has been presented in the form of contour plots. The results presented are useful for understanding the dynamics of gas-liquid-solid flows in fluidized bed and provide a basis for further development of CFD model for three phase systems.