Minimum Air Fluidization Velocity Study of Specific 2-D Bubbling Fluidized Bed Reactor

Abstract

Research on the thermodynamic behavior of sand beds was carried out using a commercial computational dynamic package. The work involved simulating, with the use of the Ergun equation, the air flow through a two-dimensional bubbling bed reactor to predict the bed character whilst considering the major effective function (particle size, particle density, bed height and reactor width). The Minimum Fluidization Velocity (Umf) values were then calculated before the optimum value of Umf needed to ensure a workable Bubbling Fluidize Bed Combustor (BFBC) system. The effects of using different Umf values on the flow behavior were also investigated using the numerical approach at different times. The results from these investigations indicate that the bubbling region in the fluidized bed combustion can be correlated to the sand bed expansion with minimum errors and assist in enhancing the combustion efficiency by supplying the required volume of oxygen into the system.