Application of a coarse grain model to gas-solid flows in a horizontal pipeline

Discrete element method is an effective approach for evaluating the particle behavior in granular flows, whereas it is hardly used in investigating the design and the operation conditions in industries. This is due to the fact that the number of particles is restricted by the limit of computer memories. Consequently the original discrete element method is difficult to be applied to the real-scale systems, where a large number of particles are dealt with. In our previous study, a new discrete element modeling for large-scale particle systems was proposed where a large-sized particle represents a crowd of original particles. The model which is called the coarse grain model was verified by a two dimensional fluidized bed simulation. In the present study, the coarse grain model is applied to a three-dimensional plug flow in a horizontal pipeline. Plug length, the cycle and stationary layer area occupation are compared between the coarse grain model and the original particle system. The results show that the coarse grain model can simulate the original particle behavior in the system.