Wet particle collisions simulated using the local front reconstruction method, a DNS approach

Abstract

In addition to particles and gas, liquid is sometimes introduced into fluidized beds to, for example, cool the reactor or to provide reactants. However, the introduction of liquids can lead to agglomeration, which may be desirable or undesirable. To control the formation and impact of these agglomerates on the process, it is important to understand the collision of wet particles. To effectively understand the collision dynamics of wet particles, this work investigates the interaction between a wet particle and a dry particle using a novel Front-Tracking (FT) approach in combination with an Immersed Boundary Method (IBM). After thorough verification, extensive simulations were conducted producing excellent agreement with the experimental results of Bunke et al. (Chemical Engineering Journal, 2024, vol. 489, 151016). From the simulation results, the primary source of energy dissipation was found to be the extension of the liquid bridge directly after the collision, where the liquid is transferred to the liquid bridge effectively causing the deceleration of the particle. The friction coefficient, which is affected by the lubrication by the liquid, is a material property that should be modeled using the experimental value. Based on the simulation results, effective collision parameters for the hard-sphere model are obtained