3D Eulerian modeling of thin rectangular gas-solid fluidized beds: Estimation of the specularity coefficient and its effects on bubbling dynamics and circulation times

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the influence of the wall boundary conditions and specifically the specularity coefficient on the fluidization behavior of a thin rectangular fluidized bed by means of 3D numerical simulation employing an Eulerian description of the gas and the solid phases. Thin rectangular fluidized beds have been extensively used in the research literature since it is assumed that the flow behaves like a simpler two-dimensional flow and hence they offer validation data for 2D simulations. However, the effects of the front and the back walls are significant, influencing the sensitivity of the fluidization hydrodynamics to the third dimension whose consideration is thus necessary. In order to investigate the influence of the specularity coefficient, ϕ (a parameter controlling the momentum transfer from the particles to the wall), on the fluidization hydrodynamics, a parametric analysis is conducted and the response of the bubble dynamics, reflecting the gasmotion, and the circulation fluxes, displaying the solids motion, are examined in detail. The computational results are compared with available experimental data in order to determine the values of ϕ that lead to the accurate description of the fluidization hydrodynamics via a two-fold validation strategy which involves the calculation of the circulation time and the solids concentration maps. It is observed that the appropriate value of the specularity coefficient depends rather strongly on the superficial gas velocity of the bed.