A New Method for Predicting Erosion Damage of Suddenly Contracted Pipe Impacted by Particle Cluster via CFD-DEM

A numerical study on the erosion of particle clusters in an abrupt pipe was conducted by means of the combined computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and discrete element methods (DEM). Furthermore, a particle-wall extrusion model and a criterion for judging particle collision interference were developed to classify and calculate the erosion rate caused by different interparticle collision mechanisms in a cluster. Meanwhile, a full-scale pipe flow experiment was conducted to confirm the effect of a particle cluster on the erosion rate and to verify the calculated results. The reducing wall was made of super 13Cr stainless steel materials and the round ceramsite as an impact particle was 0.65 mm in diameter and 1850 kg/m3 in density. The results included an erosion depth, particle-wall contact parameters, and a velocity decay rate of colliding particles along the radial direction at the target surface. Subsequently, the effect of interparticle collision mechanisms on particle cluster erosion was discussed. The calculated results demonstrate that collision interference between particles during one cluster impact was more likely to appear on the surface with large particle impact angles. This collision process between the rebounded particles and the following particles not only consumed the kinetic energy but also changed the impact angle of the following particles.

Modeling of Axial-Symmetric Flow Structure in Gas–Solids Risers

Pneumatic transport of solids in a riser has a unique nonuniform flow structure, characterized by the core solids acceleration and the wall solids deceleration along the riser, which causes the down-flow of solids and hence back mixing. To predict this nonuniform flow structure, this paper presents a mechanistic model that includes two controlling mechanisms: the interparticle collision damping for axial transport of solids and the effects of collision-induced diffusion and turbulent convection for radial transport of solids. The model predictions are partially validated against available measurements, such as axial and radial distributions of concentration and velocity of solids.

DSMC Prediction of Particle Behavior in Gas-Particle Two-Phase Impinging Streams

Devices with impinging streams have been employed in various fields of chemical engineering, as a means of intensifying heat and mass transfer processes. The particle behavior in gas-particle two-phase impinging streams (GPISs), which is of essential importance for the research of transfer processes, was simulated by an Eulerian-Lagrangian approach in this paper. Collisional interaction of particles was taken into account by means of a modified direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method based on a Lagrangian approach and the modified Nanbu method. A quantitative agreement was obtained between the predicted results and the experimental data in the literature. The particle motion behavior and the distributions of particle concentration and particle collision positions were presented reasonably. The results indicate that the particle distribution in GPIS can be divided into three zones: particle-collision zone, particle-jetting zone, and particle-scattering zone. Particle collisions occur mainly in the particle-collision zone, which obviously results in a few particles penetrating into the opposite stream. The interparticle collision rate and the particle concentration reach their maximum values in the particle-collision zone, respectively. The maximum value of the particle concentration increases with the increasing inlet particle concentration according to a logarithmic function. The interparticle collision rate is directly proportional to the square of local particle concentration.