Simulation of fuel particles motion in a 2D fluidized bed using a hybrid-model considering wall friction

The mixing of fuel particles is a key issue on the performance of fluidized bed reactors. In this work, the motion of a non-reactive fuel particle in a 2D bubbling fluidized bed at ambient conditions is simulated employing a hybrid-model. The hybrid-model, implemented in the code MFIX, simulates the dense and gas phases using a Two-Fluid Model (TFM) while the fuel particles are modeled using a Discrete Element Method (DEM). The importance of the present hybrid-model is that the interaction of the continuum phases with the fuel particles behavior is fully coupled. In a previous study, Hernández-Jiménez et al. (1) compared the fuel particles motion obtained from the simulation with experimental results measured in a cold 2D fluidized bed by Soria-Verdugo et al. (2, 3). The simulation results related to the location of the fuel particle in the bed were similar to the experimental data (Figure-1). Nevertheless, some discrepancies were found in important parameters such as the circulation time of the fuel particles. These discrepancies were associated to the overprediction of the simulated solids velocity. In the present work, in order to improve the accuracy of the simulated fuel particle motion in a bubbling fluidized bed, a friction term accounting for the effect of the walls of the bed on the continuum solid phase is introduced in the hybrid-model, as proposed by Hernández-Jiménez et al. (4). According to the results, prediction of the fuel circulation time is clearly improved when the friction term is included in the simulation (Figure-2). REFERENCES Hernández-Jiménez F. , Garcia-Gutierrez L.M., Soria-Verdugo A., Acosta-Iborra A. 2015. Fully coupled TFM-DEM simulations to study the motion of fuel particles in a fluidized bed, Chem. Eng. Sci.,134, 29, 57-66. Soria-Verdugo, A., Garcia-Gutierrez, L.M., Sánchez-Delgado, S., Ruiz-Rivas,U., 2011a. Circulation of an object immersed in a bubbling fluidized bed. Chem. Eng. Sci. 66, 78–87. Soria-Verdugo, A., Garcia-Gutierrez, L.M., García-Hernando, N., Ruiz-Rivas, U., 2011b. Buoyancy effects on objects moving in a bubbling fluidized bed. Chem. Eng. Sci.66, 2833–2841. Hernández-Jiménez, F., Cano-Pleite, E., Sánchez-Prieto, J., Garcia-Gutierrez, L.M., Acosta-Iborra, A. Development of an empirical wall-friction model for 2D simulations of pseudo-2D fluidized beds. Submitted for publication. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Experimental study of solid mixing mechanism in a 2D fluidized bed

The main mechanism of solids mixing in bubbling fluidized beds is well understood. When a bubble rises through the bed, it carries a wake of particles to the bed surface. A downflow of solids exists in the region surrounding the rising bubbles, resulting on an overall convective circulation of particles in the axial direction (1). In this work, a new method to characterize solids mixing in a 2D fluidized bed is developed. This mixing index is able to macroscopically characterize the rate of mixing in a fluidized bed by means of DIA. The mixing index is analogous to the Lacey’s mixing index of particle mixing (2). The experiments are carried out in a pseudo-2D fluidized bed using glass beads as bed material. These glass beads have the same density and diameter but half of them are painted in black (Figure-1). At the beginning of each experiment, the particles are placed in a perfectly lateral segregated state and then the fluidizing air is suddenly injected while images are recorded. Two different regions are detected in the time evolution of the mixing index. The first one is a region with a fast convective mixing, where the initial boundary between the black and white particles is broken. The second one is a region where diffusive mixing is dominant and the particles clusters are mixed with the bulk following an exponential trend (Figure-1). These two mechanisms, as well as the overall mixing time are characterized for different superficial gas velocities and particle sizes. REFERENCES M.J. Rhodes, X.S. Wang, M. Nguyen, P. Stewart, K. Liffman. Study of mixing in gas-fluidized beds using DEM model. Chem. Eng. Sci., 56(8):2859-2866, 2001. P.M.C. Lacey. Developments in the theory of particle mixing. J. Appl. Chem., 4:257-268, 1954. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Buoyancy effects on objects moving in a bubbling fluidized bed

The effect of buoyant forces on the motion of a large object immersed in a bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) was experimentally studied using digital image analysis. The experiments were performed in a 2 D bubbling fluidized bed with glass spheres as bed material and cylindrical objects with different densities and sizes. The object motion was measured using non intrusive tracking techniques. The effect of gas velocity was also analyzed. The circulation of an object in a BFB is defined by several parameters. The object might be able to circulate homogeneously throughout the bed or stay in preferred regions, such as the splash zone or the bottom zone. While circulating, the object moves back and forth between the surface of the bed and the inner regions, performing a series of cycles. Each cycle is composed by sinking and rising paths, which can be one or several, depending on whether a passing bubble is able to lift the object to the surface or the object is detached from it or its drift at an intermediate depth. Therefore, the number of rising paths or number of jumps that the object undergo in a cycle, interleaved with sinking paths, and the maximum attained depth characterize each cycle, together with the mean sinking and rising velocities of the object. In this work, experimental measurements of the probability distributions of the number of jumps and the maximum attained depth, the axial homogeneity of object motion and rising and sinking object velocities are presented for objects with different sizes and densities. The results show a coherent behavior, independent of density and size, for the probability distributions of the number of jumps. This is also true for the maximum attained depth, but only when a proper circulation throughout the bed is ensured. Such a proper circulation and axial homogeneity is, on the other hand, much affected by object density, size and gas velocity. Rising and sinking velocities are highly dependent on gas velocity, as established in well known models of bubble and dense phase velocities. Nevertheless, rising velocities are practically unaffected by object density or size, while sinking velocities show a low dependence on density and a steeper one on size. These results suggest that buoyant forces are relevant during the sinking process, and almost neutral during the rising pathThis work has been partially supported by the National Energy Program of the Spanish Department of Science and Education (ENE2006-01401), the Spanish Government (DPI2009-10518 MICINN) and the Madrid Community (CCG07-uc3m/amb-3412 and CCG08-uc3m/amb-4227)Publicad

Survival and differentiation of embryonic neural explants on different biomaterials

Biomaterials prepared from polyacrylamide, ethyl acrylate (EA), and hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) in various blend ratios, methyl acrylate and chitosan, were tested in vitro as culture substrates and compared for their ability to be colonized by the cells migrating from embryonic brain explants. Neural explants were isolated from proliferative areas of the medial ganglionic eminence and the cortical ventricular zone of embryonic rat brains and cultured in vitro on the different biomaterials. Chitosan, poly(methyl acrylate), and the 50% wt copolymer of EA and HEA were the most suitable substrates to promote cell attachment and differentiation of the neural cells among those tested. Immunofluorescence microscopy analysis showed that progenitor cells had undergone differentiation and that the resulting glial and neuronal cells expressed their intrinsic morphological characteristics in culture