Two- and three-dimensional CFD modeling of Geldart A particles in a thin bubbling fluidized bed: Comparison of turbulence and dispersion coefficients

Purpose The purpose of this study is to assess the performance of ANSYS Fluent® and OpenFOAM®, at their current state of development, to study the relevant bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) characteristics with Geldart A, B and D particles. Design/methodology/approach For typical Geldart B and D particles, both a three-dimensional cylindrical and a pseudo-two-dimensional arrangement were used to measure the bed pressure drop and solids volume fraction, the latter by digital image analysis techniques. For a typical Geldart A particle, specifically to examine bubbling and slugging phenomena, a 2 m high three-dimensional cylindrical arrangement of small internal diameter was used. The hydrodynamics of the experimentally investigated BFB cases were also simulated for identical geometries and operating conditions using OpenFOAM® v6.0 and ANSYS Fluent® v19.2 at identical mesh and numerical setups. Findings The comparison between experimental and simulated results showed that both ANSYS Fluent® and OpenFOAM® provide a fair qualitative prediction of the bubble sizes and solids fraction for freely-bubbling Geldart B and D particles. For Geldart A particles, operated in a slugging mode, the qualitative predictions are again quite fair, but numerical values of relevant slug characteristics (length, velocity and frequency) slightly favor the use of OpenFOAM®, despite some deviations of predicted slug velocities. Originality/value A useful comparison of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software performance for different fluidized regimes is presented. The results are discussed and recommendations are formulated for the selection of the CFD software and models involved.

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ASYMPTOTIC POWER SPECTRUM ANALYSIS OF CHAOTIC BEHAVIOR IN FLUIDIZED BEDS

International Journal of Bifurcation and Chaos ◽

10.1142/s021812749400023x ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 04 (02) ◽

pp. 327-341 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

JIANMIN DING ◽

SHIU-WING TAM

Keyword(s):

Power Spectrum ◽

Fluidized Bed ◽

Power Law ◽

Fluidized Beds ◽

Chaotic Behavior ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Nonlinear Behavior ◽

Asymptotic Power ◽

Bubbling Fluidized Bed ◽

Fluidization Condition

The nonlinear behavior of fluidized beds is analyzed quantitatively using an asymptotic power spectrum method. A model based on kinetic theory is used to compute the voidage signals in a two-dimensional bubbling fluidized bed with a fluidization condition of U/Umf=4, where U is the fluidizing velocity and Umf is the minimum fluidizing velocity. The data for power versus frequency in the asymptotic frequency regime are shown to obey a power-law falloff. This means that the bubbling fluidization under such a fluidization condition cannot be a low-dimensional strange attractor. Pressure fluctuation data, obtained from a three-dimensional bubbling fluidized bed, are also analyzed and clearly show the power-law falloff. This is consistent with previous findings in that the correlation dimension for these data cannot be small (i.e., 2 or 3). The differences between our findings and others are discussed.

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