Characterizing Effects of the Shape of Screw Conveyors in Gas-Solid Fluidized Beds Using Advanced Numerical Models

A numerical study of the effects of the shape of an enclosed screw conveyor on the mixing and heat transfer in a horizontal gas-solid fluidized bed was conducted using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). A two-fluid model (TFM) was employed to model the gas and solid phases as continua through mass, momentum, and energy conservations. The motion of the screw conveyor was simulated by using a rotating reference frame (RRF) such that the computational mesh was free from dynamic reconstruction. The diameters of the screw flight and shaft, the pitch, and the blade thickness were varied in the parametric study. Under the operating conditions studied, it was found that the increase in the diameter of the screw flight results in the enhancement of the solid mixing and conveyance. The increase in the diameters of the screw shaft and the screw blade thickness lead to the enhanced solid mixing but reduced conveyance. The variation in the screw pitch gives rise to rather complex behaviors in the solid mixing and conveyance. As the screw pitch is decreased, the solid mixing increases initially but then decreases before it increases eventually. The solid conveyance capability was found to first increase and then decrease. Explanations to the effects of the shape of the screw conveyor were discussed in this work.