Numerical Simulation of the Hydrodynamics of Gas/Solid Two-Phase Flow in a Circulating Fluidized Bed with Different Inlet Configurations

The gas/solid flow characteristics in a circulating fluidized bed with two different inlet configurations were investigated by numerical simulation based on an Eulerian approach. In order to describe the interaction between the gas phase and the solid phase and the influence of the solid phase on the gas turbulence, a source term formulation with a more reasonable physical meaning was introduced. The simulation results were validated by the experimental data; then, the model was employed to examine the effect of the inlet configuration oil the gas and solid feeding. The simulation results showed that, using the side feeding system, the distributions of solid flow and concentration were highly variable both over the column cross-section and along the column height. However, such variations can be improved by using the elbow inlet(1)) system where the gas and solid are fed from the bottom.