Numerical simulations of particle-laden jet/spout flows using Eulerian-Lagrangian approach

Discrete Element Method (DEM) had been successfully coupled with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in the framework of OpenFOAM; an open source CFD simulation code. It is used to simulate particle laden flows using Eulerian approach for continuum phase and Lagrangian approach for solid phase. This numerical model is validated with simple test cases of spherical particle comparing the results with the analytical solution and is reported in earlier work. In current study, results of numerical simulation of spout-fluid bed are compared against experimental and simulation results reported in literature. The pressure drop fluctuations and isosurface plots of solid volume fraction show a good qualitative prediction of different flow regimes. The particle velocity profiles in the vertical direction for different test cases are plotted and compared with the literature data. The comparison of results shows a good quantitative behavior of the model predictions. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.