The impact of swirling on the dynamics of a spouted bed

Abstract

This work is devoted to a numerical study of inflow swirl on the flow field in a spouted bed. The Eulerian-Eulerian multiphase model was used to simulate the hydrodynamics of a gas-solid flow in a 2D axisymmetric spouted bed under an unsteady laminar regime. The results of the simulations are validated with the experimental data obtained by He et al. (Can. J. Chem. Eng. Vol. 72, pp. 229–234 and pp. 561–568, 1994). The comparison of the results shows that the numerically obtained profiles of the time-averaged axial solid velocity agree well with the experimentally measured values. The results of the simulations revealed that the slightly increase in the swirling ratio of the inlet flow leads to an enhanced spouting process, while a strong swirling ratio has an adverse effect on the mixing between gas and solid particles. Thus, the use of the inflow swirl enables control of dynamics of spouted beds.