Simulation of Hydrodynamic Characteristics of Glass Beads in Gas-Liquid-Solid Three Phase Fluidized Beds by Computational Fluid Dynamics

Abstract

A computational fluid dynamics model used to understand the hydrodynamics of three phase fluidized bed is presented in this paper. In the present investigation, an attempt has been made to study the complex hydrodynamics of three phase fluidized bed; bed expansion, holdup of two phases, bed pressure drop, fluidized bed voidage and velocity profile. The model is developed by using the commercial CFD code Fluent 6.2. The drag model for simulating is used Gidaspow model. The main focus on for analyzing the results is on the column with 1.5m height and diameter 0.1m. Euler-Euler multiphase flow approach is capable of predicting the overall performance of gas-liquid-solid fluidized bed. The results obtained show that the liquid holdup increased with the inlet liquid velocity, gas holdup increased with the flow rate of gas and decreased with an increase in the liquid flow rate.