Jam. Kuipers et al., COMPUTER-SIMULATION OF THE HYDRODYNAMICS OF A 2-DIMENSIONAL GAS-FLUIDIZED BED, Computers & chemical engineering, 17(8), 1993, pp. 839-858
Citations number
23
Categorie Soggetti
Computer Application, Chemistry & Engineering","Computer Applications & Cybernetics","Engineering, Chemical
A first principles model of a gas-fluidized bed has been applied to ca
lculate the hydrodynamics of a two-dimensional (2-D) bed with an orifi
ce in the middle of a porous plate distributor. The advanced hydrodyna
mic model is based on a two fluid model approach in which both phases
are considered to be continuous and fully interpenetrating. Conservati
on equations for mass, momentum and thermal energy have been solved nu
merically by a finite difference technique on a mini-computer. Our com
puter model calculates the porosity, the pressure, the fluidum phase t
emperature, the solid phase temperature and the velocity fields of bot
h phases in 2-D Cartesian or axisymmetrical cylindrical coordinates. T
he new feature of the present model is the incorporation of Newtonian
behaviour in the gas and solid phases. Our preliminary calculations in
dicate that the sensitivity of the computed bubble size with respect t
o the bed rheology (i.e. the solid phase viscosity) is quite small. Ho
wever the bubble shape appears to be much more sensitive to the bed rh
eology. Results of the calculations have been compared with data obtai
ned from an experimental cold-flow model (height: 1000 mm, width: 570
mm, depth: 15 mm).