Entrance effects on gas-solid hydrodynamics of turbulent fluidized beds filled with Geldart B particles

Abstract

For nearly a century, fluidized beds have been the backbone of the processing industries. However, the complex hydrodynamic behavior aggravated, by the diversified solids handling has largely hindered its scaling up. The flow pattern may be influenced by the solid particles' feeders, and thus can have an impact on the system performance. In the first part of the present work, the hydrodynamic behavior of a 2D circulating fluidized bed is simulated under different superficial gas velocities to investigate their effect on the overall flow patterns. The numerical results are validated against available experimental data and a good agreement is achieved. In the second part, a special concern was dedicated to the effect of the gas/solid feeding configuration over the established flow structure. For the matter, five different configurations were tested and the corresponding results showed the high relevance of the feeding configuration, particularly in the bottom zone and on both phases. This impact decreases as we progress higher in the riser.