Numerical & experimental study of gas and solid flow in an internally circulating fluidized bed
(ICFB). The gas and solid hydrodynamics have been simulated by using the commercially available
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) softwar
e package, ANSYS’s Fluent. A three dimensional
geometry was used to represent key parts of a laboratory ICFB. In 3D ICFB, the two
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fluid Eulerian
model with kinetic theory of granular flow option and the various drag laws like Gidaspow,
Syamlal
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Obrien, Gibl
aro and Arastoopour drag models used to predict the hydrodynamic behavior
of ICFB. The simulation results by four drag laws show that the Gidaspow and Arastoopour drag
models predict the fluidization dynamics in terms of flow patterns, void fractions and a
xial velocity
fields were compared with experimental data. With the Arastoopour drag model the simulations are
giving the best fits to the experimental data. The effect of superficial gas velocity, presence of draft
tube on solid hold
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up distribution, soli
d circulation pattern, and variations in gas bypassing fraction
for the 3D ICFB investigated through CFD simulations. The mechanism governing the solid
circulation in an ICFB has been explained based on gas and solid dynamics obtained from the
simulations
