CFD modeling of an internally circulating fluidized-bed reactor

A hydrodynamic model on the base of the mass- and momentum conservation equ ations was used to describe the complex hydrodynamics of an internally circ ulating fluidized-bed (ICFB) reactor. Model predictions were compared with experimentally observed hydrodynamic patterns. The model was able to explai n the effect of different reactor designs and various hydrodynamic paramete rs, e.g, height of the surrounding annulus, length of the entrainment regio n on the flow fields, i.e. porosity and velocity distributions. Furthermore , time-averaged pressure drops in the draft tube that were calculated from the non-stationary predictions agreed reasonably well with experimental val ues measured in a laboratory-scale ICFB reactor. The simulations confirmed that the height of the annulus is a key factor for the control of the circu lation of solids. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.