Computational fluid dynamics and experimental study of the hydrodynamics of a gas-solid tapered fluidized bed

In the present work, experimental and numerical studies for the hydrodynamics in a gas-solid tapered fluidized bed have been carried out. The experimental results obtained by carrying out experiments in a tapered fluidized bed for glass bead (spherical) of 2.0 mm and dolomite (non-spherical particles) of 2.215 mm in diameter, were compared with the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation results, using a commercial CFD software package, Fluent. The gas-solid flow was simulated using the Eulerian-Eulerian model and applying the kinetic theory of granular flow for solid particles. The Gidaspow drag model was used to calculate the gas-solid momentum exchange coefficients. Pressure drops predicted by the CFD simulations agreed reasonably well with experimental measurements for both types (spherical and non-spherical) of particles. Good agreement was also obtained between experimental and CFD predicted bed expansion ratios for both types of particles. Present study provides a useful basis for further works on the CFD of tapered fluidized bed. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.