Numerical Simulation of Swirling Gas-Soild Flow in a Vertical Pipeline.

Abstract

In this paper, a numerical simulation for the axial and swirling sas-solid flows in a vertical pipe is carried out with an Eulerian approach for the gas and a stochastic Lagrangian approach for particles, where particle-particle and particle-wall collisions are taken into consideration. The k-e turbulence model is used to characterize the time and length scales of the gas-phase turbulence. Models predicting the particle source and additional pressure loss are used. Numerical results are presented for polyethylene pellets of 3.2mm diameter conveyed through a pipeline of 12m height with an inner diameter of 80mm, solid mass flow rates of 0.03kg/s and 0.084kg/s, and gas velocity varying from 11m/s to 18m/s. The axial and radial distribution of particles, the particle concentration, the particle velocity, gas velocity, turbulent kinetic energy and turbulent energy dissipation rate are obtained. The numerical results agree with the experimental data.