The effect of particle properties on the heat transfer characteristics of a liquid–solid fluidized bed heat exchanger

Abstract

The dominant parameters of a liquid–solid fluidized bed heat exchanger are studied both numerically and experimentally. The numerical simulations have been validated using a laboratory scale fluidized bed heat exchanger filled with stainless steel spherical particles as the particulate medium. In addition, the effect of particle properties such as the particle density, specific heat, thermal conductivity and size on the heat transfer characteristics of the fluidized bed heat exchanger have been studied using the strong tool of computational fluid dynamics. The results show that the heat transfer rate can be maximized for an optimum particle size. Moreover, the study on different materials has been conducted comparing stainless steel, aluminum and copper as the particulate phase. The obtained results of different particle properties are discussed considering the hydrodynamics and heat transfer aspects of changing the particle properties.