Numerical Studies on Particle Dynamics in a Spouted Bed

Abstract

A coupled computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-discrete element method (DEM) technique has been adopted to examine the dynamic behavior of particles in a rectangular spouted bed. Eulerian method has been used to solve the Navier–Stokes equation for the gas phase (for the CFD) and Lagrangian method (for the DEM) for the particle phase, where the k–ϵ two-equation turbulence model has been used to capture the effect of gas-phase turbulence. In the present work, we sought to predict the minimum spouting velocity (Ums) numerically for a fixed bed height and particular particle properties. The effects of the inelastic collision and the friction on translational and rotational dynamics of the particles in spout, annulus, and fountain zones have been brought out with the intensive parametric study. The results reported here would be a way forward for a better understanding of the spouted bed processing where translational and rotational dynamics of particles play a key role.