Two-fluid simulation of spout-fluid bed with multiple chambers: Flow structure, hydrodynamic characteristics and heat transfer

Abstract

Spout–fluid beds are widely applied in the process industry due to their advantages of efficient contact between particles and gas. In this paper, a TFM (two-fluid model) is set up to simulate the hydrodynamics and heat transfer of a 3D spout-fluid bed with single, double and triple chambers. Simulation results show that scale-up by aligning multiple chambers is complex in the regimes with low SF (spout-fluid ratio) due to chamber-chamber interaction. In the regimes with high SF , however, scale-up is simple because chamber-chamber interaction is hardly noticed. With increasing SF , gas and particle fluxes on inter-chamber interfaces prefer to occur in the annulus regions instead of in the fountain region. The kinetic heat flux of the solid phase has a similar preference. The molecular heat flux of the solid phase always prefers to pass through the inter-chamber interface in the annulus region. The preference however weakens with increasing SF .