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ARTICLE

Numerical Simulation of Bubble Formation at a Single Orifice in Gas-fluidized Beds with Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics and Finite Volume Coupled Method

F.Z. Chen^1,2, H.F. Qiang¹, W.R. Gao¹

1 601 Staff Room, Xi’an Hi–Tech Institute, Xi’an, Shanxi, PRC, PC 710025.
2 Corresponding author. Tel: 15829728486; E-mail addresses: yuebo369@163.com

Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences 2015, 104(1), 41-68. https://doi.org/10.3970/cmes.2015.104.041

Abstract

A coupled method describing gas-solid two-phase flow has been proposed to numerically study the bubble formation at a single orifice in gas-fluidized beds. Solid particles are traced with smoothed particle hydrodynamics, whereas gas phase is discretized by finite volume method. Drag force, gas pressure gradient, and volume fraction are used to couple the two methods. The effect of injection velocities, particle sizes, and particle densities on bubble growth is analyzed using the coupled method. The simulation results, obtained for two-dimensional geometries, include the shape and diameter size of a bubble as a function of time; such results are compared with experimental data, previous numerical results, and other approximate model predictions reported in the literature. Moreover, the flow profiles of gas and particle phases and the temperature distribution by the heat transfer model around the forming bubble are also discussed. All results show that the coupled method efficiently describes of the bubble formation in fluidized beds. The proposed method is applicable for solving gas–solid two-phase flow in fluidization.

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Keywords

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