Particle resolved simulations of liquid/solid and gas/solid fluidized beds

Abstract

The present work studies particle resolved simulations of liquid/solid and gas/solid fluidization in a cuboid domain with periodic lateral boundary conditions. The focus is on investigating particles’ dynamics, while a particular care is devoted to the spatial grid resolution and statistical time convergence of the results. A statistical analysis of particles’ motion and fluid fluctuations asserts the intrinsic differences in the flow characteristics and mixing properties of these two configurations. Results reveal anisotropic mechanisms driving particles’ motion and highlight the dominance of diffusive and convective mechanisms in liquid/solid and gas/solid regimes, respectively. Following a framework similar to that of Nicolai et al. [“Particle velocity fluctuations and hydrodynamic self-diffusion of sedimenting non-Brownian spheres,” Phys. Fluids 7(1), 12–23 (1995)], we estimate the correlation time and the fluctuation length of particles’ motion. A force budget analysis is discussed to gain more insight into the role of collision in isotropization of the system. Owing to the wide range of employed grid resolutions and accurate error analysis, the present dataset is also deemed to be useful in calibrating the grid resolution for a desired accuracy of the solution in a fluidization configuration.