CFD-DEM investigation of the fluidization of binary mixtures containing rod-like particles and spherical particles in a fluidized bed

Fluidization of elongated particles-Effect of multi-particle correlations for drag, lift, and torque in CFD-DEM

Having proper correlations for hydrodynamic forces is essential for successful CFD-DEM simulations of a fluidized bed. For spherical particles in a fluidized bed, efficient correlations for predicting the drag force, including the crowding effect caused by surrounding particles, are already available and well tested. However, for elongated particles, next to the drag force, the lift force, and hydrodynamic torque also gain importance. In this work, we apply recently developed multi-particle correlations for drag, lift and torque in CFD-DEM simulations of a fluidized bed with spherocylindrical particles of aspect ratio 4 and compare them to simulations with widely used single-particle correlations for elongated particles. Simulation results are compared with previous magnetic particle tracking experimental results. We show that multi-particle correlations improve the prediction of particle orientation and vertical velocity. We also show the importance of including hydrodynamic torque.

CFD-DEM -DDM Model for Spray Coating Process in a Wurster Coater

A multiscale model by coupling computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with a discrete element model (DEM) and discrete droplet model (DDM) is developed to simulate a lab-scale Wurster coater. Two case studies are conducted to study the effect of particle shape in the system. In the first case study, 45,000 spherical particles are coated for 5 s while for the second case study, a mixture of 22,500 spherical particles and 22,500 cylindrical particles is simulated. The residence time distributions (RTD) of particles in different spray zones are compared, and the best spray zone is derived by analysing the positions of spray droplet-particle contacts. The simulation results show that the RTD of the particles within an accurate spray zone can provide valuable information on the final product's particles size distribution. Furthermore, the coefficient of variation (COV) for the coating mass received by the particles is studied for both case studies.

A Mixing Behavior Study of Biomass Particles and Sands in Fluidized Bed Based on CFD-DEM Simulation

The present paper studied the mixing characteristics of biomass and sands in a fluidized bed. A three dimensional model is calculated on the basis of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and the discrete element method (DEM), while the lab-scale experiments under similar conditions are conducted. To investigate the mixing behavior of biomass and sands, particle distribution, particles time averaged kinetic motion and the Lacey index are analyzed and the effects of gas velocity and biomass size are discussed. Gas velocity provides the basic motion for particle movement and biomass particles gain a lot more kinetic motion than sands due to their large size. The biomass mixing process in a horizontal direction is more sensitive to gas velocity than in a vertical direction. Biomass size could slightly affect the mixing quality and a well mixing in fluidized bed could be reached if the size of biomass to sands is smaller than 4 times.