Effects of Geometry and Operating Fluid on the Expansion Behavior of Liquid-Solid Fluidized Beds

Fluidized beds have been widely used in industrial applications, which in most of them, the operating fluid is non-Newtonian. In this study, the combination of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) and the smoothed profile method has been developed for non-Newtonian power-law fluids. The validation of the obtained model were investigated by experimental correlations. This model has been used for numerical studying of changing the operating fluid and geometrical parameters on the expansion behavior in liquid-solid beds with both Newtonian and non -Newtonian fluids. Investigations were performed for seven different geometries, one Newtonian, and two non -Newtonian fluids. The power-law index was in the range of 0.8 to 1, and the results for the Newtonian fluidized beds show more porosity than the non-Newtonian ones. Furthermore, increasing the power-law index resulted in enhancing the bed porosity. On the other hand, bed porosity was decreased by increasing the initial bed height and the density of the solid particles. Finally, the porosity ratio in the bed was decreased by increasing the solid particle diameter.