Gas‐solid flow distribution through identical vertical passages: Modeling and stability analysis

Abstract

AbstractAs previous evidence shows, the distribution of gas‐solid flow traveling through identical parallel paths can be significantly nonuniform, often with harmful operating consequences in practice. A fundamental analytical and numerical study is performed on the distribution of gas‐solid pneumatic flow passing through a “Y branch”. While many steady‐state gas‐solid distribution solutions, including a uniform distribution, satisfy the governing equations, linear stability analysis indicates that the uniform distribution is stable the most likely solution of the system. Both 2‐D (two‐dimensional) and 3‐D multiphase computational fluid dynamic simulations and stability analyses confirm the analytical conclusions. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2010