CFD simulation of multiphase fluid flow in a two-dimensional gas-solid fluidized bed using two different turbulence models

Abstract

This paper presents the numerical analysis of fluid flow in a two-dimensional fluidized bed through simulations. The experiment data of Geldart B particles fluidized bed is used to validate the simulation results. Simulations has been conducted using Computational Fluids Dynamics (CFD) method, Eulerian Eulerian two fluid approach with Gidaspow drag model, kinetic theory of granular flow, and two turbulence models. Two different turbulence models of Standard (STD) k-ε and Renormalization Group (RNG) k-ε are used since they are proven applicable for high complexity flows such as in the fluidized bed. Simulations were conducted using the commercial software CFDSOF®. From the experiments obtained that the minimum fluidization velocity is 0.4 m/s and the pressure drop across the bed is around 700 Pa. Both models cannot predict the pressure drop across the bed well below the minimum fluidization velocity, but above it both models give the closer results to the experiment data and the RNG k-ε model predicts closer in comparison to the STD k-ε model. The STD k-ε model predicts the turbulent regime sooner and the static pressure distribution a little bit higher.