Effect of lift force on dense gas-fluidised beds of non-spherical particles

Abstract (2017)

Authors

I. Mema Intensified Reaction and Separation Systems - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
V.V. Mahajan Intensified Reaction and Separation Systems - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
B. Fitzgerald Intensified Reaction and Separation Systems - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
Hans Kuipers Eindhoven University of Technology
J.T. Padding Intensified Reaction and Separation Systems - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
Research Group
Complex Fluid Processing (Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering) (TU Delft)
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Published Date

2017

Language

English

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Faculty

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

Department

Process and Energy

Research Group

Complex Fluid Processing

Abstract

Particle aggregates are frequently processed in industrial apparatus such as pneumatic conveyors, bed gasifiers and fluidised bed reactors. In numerical models of these processes, particles have traditionally been represented as spheres, thus limiting complexities associated with drag or lift forces. However, spherical particles are not representative of the entities encountered in real systems. For example, non-spherical biomass particles of varying aspect ratios are used in the production of biomass fuels. Thus far, there is limited literature in relation to hydrodynamic forces experienced by non-spherical particles under fluidised conditions. In fluidised beds, particles will experience varying lift force conditions dependent on the orientation of the particle relative to the direction of the fluid velocity.
In this study, we investigate numerically the effect of differing lift force coefficient correlations on spherocylindrical particles of varying aspect ratios. We employ correlations derived from previous simulations on non-spherical particles [1] and aerofoil dynamics [2] in simulations. Particle interactions are modelled using the Open Source engine CFDEM, which uses the OpenFOAM computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver to describe the fluid component and LIGGGHTS to implement discrete element method (DEM) calculations [3]. We investigate the importance of lift forces on non-spherical particles under dense fluidised conditions and compare results to the case of spherical particles where lift forces are often neglected.