CFD Modeling and Validation of the Turbulent Fluidized Bed of FCC Particles

An experimental and computational study is presented on the hydrodynamic characteristics of FCC particles in a turbulent fluidized bed. Based on the Eulerian/Eulerian model, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model incorporating a modified gas-solid drag model has been presented, and the model parameters are examined by, using a commerical CFD software package (FLUENT 6.2.16). Relative to other drag models, the modified one gives a reasonable hydroadynamic prediction in comparison with experimental data. The hydrodynamics show more sensitive to the coefficient of restitution than to the flow models and kinetics theories. Experimental and numerical results indicate that there exist two different coexisting regions in the turbulent fluidized bed: a bottom dense, bubbling region and a dilute, dispersed flow region. At low-gas velocity, solid-volume fractions show high near the wall region, and low in the center of the bed. Increasing gas velocity aggravates the turbulent disorder in the turbulent fluidized bed, resulting in an irregularity of the radial particle concentration profile. (C) 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 55: 1680-1694, 2009