Hydrodynamic modeling of the entrainment of Geldart A group particles in gas-solid fluidized bed: The effect of column diameter

Abstract

A multi-fluid Eulerian computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is used to simulate the entrainment of fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) particles in gas-solid fluidized beds. Entrainment of Geldart A group particles was studied because of their wide range of industrial use. The model was based on the kinetic theory of granular flow. The CFD model was used to investigate the effect of column diameter on the entrainment flux of particles in a binary mixture. Two different sizes of particles were used because many engineering applications deal with binary mixture of particles in fluidized beds. Various column diameters, including 38 mm, 76 mm, 114 mm, 152 mm, and 190 mm, were investigated. The entrainment flux of particles was increased with decreasing column diameter. The effect of column diameter was not significant for column diameters larger than 114 mm. Furthermore, increasing the superficial gas velocity increased the entrainment flux of particles. Model predictions were also compared with experimental findings.