CFD simulation of flow pattern and jet penetration depth in gas-fluidized beds with single and double jets

Abstract

A simple two-fluid model is validated by comparing single-jet fluidization experiments and numerical predictions. Subsequently, flow pattern and jet penetration depth are explored numerically in the bed with double jets under equal and unequal gas velocities. Glass balltoni with a density of 2550kg/m3 and a diameter of 275μm is employed as solid phase. The model used in this study considers the effect of the dispersed solid phase on both gas and particle momentum equations of the inviscid model A (Gidaspow, 1994). Numerical simulations are carried out in the platform of CFX 4.4, a commercial CFD code, together with user-defined FORTRAN subroutines. Both jet penetration depth and jet frequency predicted are in good quantitative agreement with measurements in an incipiently fluidized bed with a single jet. By combining solid volume fraction distribution and particle-phase velocity vector profile, three flow patterns (isolated, merged and transitional jets) are identified in the gas-fluidized bed with double jets, which depend more on the nozzle distance than the jet gas velocity. For the equal jet gas velocity, the jet penetration depth decreases with increasing nozzle distance in the merged-jet and transitional-jet regions, then reaches a minimum value in the transitional-jet region, and finally keeps steady in the isolated-jet region. For the unequal jet gas velocity, the merged jet penetration depth increases with increase in the velocity of one jet as the other jet gas velocity is fixed, whilst the jet penetration depths change a little in the transitional-jet region and remain a constant in the isolated-jet region.