A novel method for the calculation of particle heat conduction and resolved 3D wall heat transfer for the CFD/DEM approach

The Effect of Variable Air–Fuel Ratio on Thermal NOx Emissions and Numerical Flow Stability in Rotary Kilns Using Non-Premixed Combustion

One of the quickest ways to influence both the wall temperature and thermal NOx emissions in rotary kilns is to change the air–fuel ratio (AFR). The normalized counterpart of the AFR, the equivalence ratio, is usually associated with premixed flames and studies of its influence on diffusion flames are inconsistent, depending on the application. In this paper, the influence of the AFR is investigated numerically for rotary kilns by conducting steady-state simulations. We first conduct three-dimensional simulations where we encounter statistically unstable flow at high inflow conditions, which may be caused by vortex stretching. As vortex stretching vanishes in two-dimensional flow, the 2D simulations no longer encounter convergence problems. The impact of this simplification is shown to be acceptable for the thermal behaviour. It is shown that both the wall temperature and thermal NOx emissions peak at the fuel-rich and fuel-lean side of the stoichiometric AFR, respectively. If the AFR continues to increase, the wall temperature decreases significantly and thermal NOx emissions drop dramatically. The NOx validation, however, shows different results and indicates that the simulation model is simplified too much, as the measured NOx formation peaks at significantly fuel-lean conditions.

Heat Transfer and Hydrodynamics in Stirred Tanks with Liquid-Solid Flow Studied by CFD–DEM Method

The heat transfer and hydrodynamics of particle flows in stirred tanks are investigated numerically in this paper by using a coupled CFD–DEM method combined with a standard k-e turbulence model. Particle–fluid and particle–particle interactions, and heat transfer processes are considered in this model. The numerical method is validated by comparing the calculated results of our model to experimental results of the thermal convection of gas-particle flows in a fluidized bed published in the literature. This coupling model of computational fluid dynamics and discrete element (CFD–DEM) method, which could calculate the particle behaviors and individual particle temperature clearly, has been applied for the first time to the study of liquid-solid flows in stirred tanks with convective heat transfers. This paper reports the effect of particles on the temperature field in stirred tanks. The effects on the multiphase flow convective heat transfer of stirred tanks without and with baffles as well as various heights from the bottom are investigated. Temperature range of the multiphase flow is from 340 K to 350 K. The height of the blade is varied from about one-sixth to one-third of the overall height of the stirred tank. The numerical results show that decreasing the blade height and equipping baffles could enhance the heat transfer of the stirred tank. The calculated temperature field that takes into account the effects of particles are more instructive for the actual processes involving solid phases. This paper provides an effective method and is helpful for readers who have interests in the multiphase flows involving heat transfers in complex systems.