Hydrodynamic simulation of a liquid–solid fluidized bed using Lattice Boltzmann and smoothed profile methods

Abstract

AbstractIn the present study, a combined Lattice Boltzmann method–smoothed profile method is used for simulation of a liquid–solid fluidized bed of circular, monodisperse, and polydisperse particles in a rectangular channel. The hydrodynamic model of the flow is based on the Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook Lattice Boltzmann method, and smoothed profile method is adopted to enforce the no‐slip boundary condition at the liquid–solid interface and also calculate the fluid–solid hydrodynamic force. The kinematics and trajectory of the discrete particles are evaluated by Newton's law of motion. A numerical instance of fluidization involving 527 particles is presented to demonstrate the capability of the combined scheme. Comparison of minimum fluidization velocity and pressure drop through the bed with Ergun equation, and also porosity and bed height with the Richardson–Zaki equation, shows good correspondence. Several different models are also presented to investigate the influence of the density and polydispersity of particles in the fluidized bed. Simulations indicate that an increase in particle density decreases the porosity of the bed. Also, it is observed that the porosity of the polydisperse beds is less than that of monodisperse ones. Copyright © 2017 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.