Supercritical water fluidized bed reactor (SCWFBR) is a promising new
reaction vessel which can effectively gasify wet biomass and efficiently
produce hydrogen. Free convection heat transfer from particle in
supercritical water (SCW) is a major basic heat transfer mechanism in a
fixed bed or fluidized bed with low superficial velocity. In this paper,
numerical study on the steady free convection heat transfer around single
sphere particle in high pressure water of pseudo-critical zone was carried
out. Both the Boussinesq approximation method and real properties model
(considering variable specific heat, density, viscosity, and conductivity of
SCW) were incorporated to simulate the flow and temperature field. With
respect to Boussinesq approximation, real properties model shows higher
vorticity and temperature gradients in the vicinity of the sphere surface,
which shows variation of thermo-physical property has remarkable effect on
the free convection heat transfer process. High local Nusselt number and
high heat transfer rate were observed with real properties model.