A NUMERICAL-MODEL FOR PREDICTING BUBBLE FORMATION IN A 3D FLUIDIZED-BED

Fluidized bed systems have the potential to be widely used in the powe r generation, mineral processing and chemical industries. One factor l imiting their increased use is the lack of adequate design techniques for scaling such systems. A model has been developed for simulating ga s-solid fluidized bed plant. The model uses a multiphase Eulerian-Eule rian technique to predict the transient behaviour of fluidized bed sys tems. The commercial CFD code CFX is used as the computational framewo rk for solving the discretized equations. To overcome the problem of a ccurate geometrical representation experienced in previous models a bo dy fitted grid system is employed. The model is used to predict isothe rmal flow in a three-dimensional bubbling fluidized bed. Predictions o f the three-dimensional model show bubble formation with gas bubbles o r voids preferentially moving along the centre of the bed. Predicted b ehaviour is qualitatively consistent with experimental observations. ( C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.