Hydrodynamic analysis of carbon nanotube clusters in distributor-less conical fluidized beds with step-by-step scaling

As a high-performance material with great application potential,the application of carbon nanotubes has been limited by their production volume.A distributor-less conical fluidized bed is the main equipment used in the industrial production of carbon nanotubes.To improve the production volume and product quality of carbon nanotubes,the study of fluidized-bed-diameter scaling is important.Three different diameters of distributor-less conical fluidized beds were established,and then the particle behavior and bubble characteristics of carbon nanotube clusters at these bed diameters were investigated.Time-series and wavelet analysis methods were used to analyze the pressure-fluctuation signals inside the fluidized beds.Results showed that the distributor-less design caused the airflow to break through the middle of the bed,which did not change with the change in bed diameter.The powder-bridging phenomenon of carbon nanotube clusters in a 100-mm-diameter fluidized bed was related to the special microstructure of carbon nanotube clusters.The frequency of pressure fluctuations in the bed decreased nonlinearly with increasing bed diameter.This study can guide the design and scale-up of distributor-less conical fluidized beds,especially for the scale-up of carbon nanotube production equipment,which can contribute to the improvement of carbon nanotubes’capacity and quality in industrial production.

Influence of hydrogen concentration on Fe_2O_3 particle reduction in fluidized beds under constant drag force

The fixed-gas drag force from a model calculation method that stabilizes the agitation capabilities of different gas ratios was used to explore the influence of temperature and hydrogen concentration on fluidizing duration, metallization ratio, utilization rate of reduction gas, and sticking behavior. Different hydrogen concentrations from 5vol%to 100vol%at 1073 and 1273 K were used while the drag force with the flow of N2 and H2 （N2：2 L·min^-1;H2：2 L·min^-1） at 1073 K was chosen as the standard drag force. The metallization ratio, mean reduc-tion rate, and utilization rate of reduction gas were observed to generally increase with increasing hydrogen concentration. Faster reduction rates and higher metallization ratios were obtained when the reduction temperature decreased from 1273 to 1073 K. A numerical relation among particle diameter, particle drag force, and fluidization state was plotted in a diagram by this model.

Experiment research on grain drying process in the heat pump assisted fluidized beds

A heat pump assisted fluidized bed grain drying experimental system wasdeveloped. Based on this system, a serial of experiments was performed under four kinds of air cycleconditions. According to the experimental analysis, an appropriate drying medium-air cycle for theheat pump assisted fluidized bed drying equipment was decided, which is different from the commonlyused heat pump assisted drying system. The experimental results concerning the drying operationperformance of the new system show that the averaged coefficient of performance (COP) can reach morethan 2.5. The economical evaluation was performed and the power consumption for removing a kilogramwater from grains was about 0.485 kW-h/kg (H_2O), which shows its reasonable commercial efficiencyand great application potentiality in future market.

HCl emission characteristics and BP neural networks prediction in MSW/coal co-fired fluidized beds

The HCl emission characteristics of typical municipal solid waste(MSW) components and their mixtures have been investigated in a Φ150 mm fluidized bed. Some influencing factors of HCl emission in MSW fluidized bed incinerator was found in this study. The HCl emission is increasing with the growth of bed temperature, while it is decreasing with the increment of oxygen concentration at furnace exit. When the weight percentage of auxiliary coal is increased, the conversion rate of Cl to HCl is increasing. The HCl emission is decreased, if the sorbent(CaO) is added during the incineration process. Based on these experimental results, a 14×6×1 three-layer BP neural networks prediction model of HCl emission in MSW/coal co-fired fluidized bed incinerator was built. The numbers of input nodes and hidden nodes were fixed on by canonical correlation analysis technique and dynamic construction method respectively. The prediction results of this model gave good agreement with the experimental results, which indicates that the model has relatively high accuracy and good generalization ability. It was found that BP neural network is an effectual method used to predict the HCl emission of MSW/coal co-fired fluidized bed incinerator.

CFD Model of Dense Gas-solid Systems in Jetting Fluidized Beds

A CFD code has been developed based on the conservation principles describing gas and solid flow in fluidized beds. This code is employed to simulate not only the spatiotemporal gas and solid phase velocities and voidage profiles in a two dimensional bed but also fluid dynamics in the jet region. The computational results show that gas flow direction is upward in the entire bed accompanied with random local circulations, whilst solid flow direction is upward at the center and downward near the wall. The radical reason of strong back mixing of solid particles and good transfer behavior between two phases is that the jet entrains solid particles. Numerical calculation indicates that gas velocity, solid velocity and pressure profile have a significant change when the voidage is 0 8. The simulated time averaged voidage profiles agree with the experimental results and simulated data reported by Gidaspow and Ettehadieh(1983). Therefore, CFD model can be regarded as a useful tool to study the jet characteristics in dense gas solid fluidized beds.

Nonequilibrium Thermodynamic and Dissipative Structure Mechanism of Fluidized Beds

Fluidized beds are nonlinear dynamic systems that exchange mass and energy with outside. They are governed not only byfluid dynamics, but by thermodynamics, especially the second law of thermodynamics as well. According to Prigogine's dissipative structure theory, the following have been concluded: (l) a fixed bed is on thermodynamic blanch, and bubbling, turbulent and fast beds areon the dissipatve structure branches. (2) Entropy in fluidized beds is divided into tWo parts: entropy production and entropy flux. The latter increases with gas velocity and decreases with pressure of the systems. That means the entropy of a system may reduce and the systemwith higher gas velocity behaves as dissipative structure characteristics. (3) For a giVen velocity, a fluidized bed operates stably on thewhole, but it is unstable to local gas-solid phases. The unstable phases are described by fluid dynamic equations, While the minimum ofsystem energy function assures whole stability of the system. (4) A transition criterion of a bubbling bed is derived from Prigogine's stability theory.

Temperature distribution and control in liquefied petroleum gas fluidized beds

Temperature distribution and control have been investigated in a liquefiedpetroleum gas (LPG) fluidized bed with hollow corundum spheres (A1_2O_3) of 0.867-1.212 mm indiameter at moderately high temperatures (800-1100℃). Experiments were carried out for the airconsumption coefficient α in the range of 0.3 to 1.0 and the fluidization number N in the range of1.3 to 3.0. Particle properties, initial bed height, α and N all affect temperature distribution inthe bed. Bed temperature can be adjusted about 200℃ by combined the adjusting of α and N.

CFD-DEM simulation of fluorination reaction in fluidized beds with local grid and time refinement method

The gas-solid reaction process with wide particle size distribution is extensively used in the chemical engineering field,especially the particle reacts with the gas gradually,such as fluorination reactions in fluidized beds.When the computational fluid dynamics-discrete element method(CFD-DEM)is used for the coupling simulation of multiphase and polydisperse particle reaction system,the grid size directly affects the accuracy of flow field information and simulation of chemical reaction.Furthermore,particle calculation time step will directly affect the efficiency of coupling calculation.In this work,a local grid and time step refinement method is proposed to simulate multiphase and polydisperse particle fluid-ization reaction system.In this method,the refined DEM grids are automatically generated in the computational domain around the fine particles,and the detailed fluid phase information is obtained with the interpolation algorithm.In the two-phase coupling process,particles are divided into different groups based on physical properties,each group has its own independent time step.The multistage conical-cylindrical spouted bed is proposed for the fluorination reaction process;the operating gas ve-locity range of the polydisperse particle system is extended by the new design while the particle size distribution changes with the gas-solid reaction process.It is demonstrated that the local grid and time step refinement method can improve the accuracy and efficiency of the traditional CFD-DEM method in the reaction process simulation,which describes a polydisperse particle system with wide particle size distribution.Aimed at improving the simulation accuracy and efficiency,this paper will be helpful for simulating the particle reaction process in the gas-solid fluidized bed and beneficial for the development of the CFD-DEM method.

Multi-scale numerical simulation of fluidized beds: Model applicability assessment

In the past few decades,multi-scale numerical methods have been developed to model dense gas-solidflow in fluidized beds with different resolutions,accuracies,and efficiencies.However,ambiguity needsto be clarified in the multi-scale numerical simulation of fluidized beds:(i)the selection of the submodels,parameters,and numerical resolution;(ii)the multivariate coupling of operating conditions,bed configurations,polydispersity,and additional forces.Accordingly,a state-of-the-art review is performed to assess the applicability of multi-scale numerical methods in predicting dense gas-solid flow influidized beds at specific fluidization regimes(e.g.,bubbling fluidization region,fast fluidization regime),with a focus on the inter-particle collision models,inter-phase interaction models,collision parameters,and polydispersity effect.A mutual restriction exists between resolution and efficiency.Higherresolution methods need more computational resources and thus are suitable for smaller-scale simulations to provide a database for closure development.Lower-resolution methods require fewercomputational resources and thus underpin large-scale simulations to explore macro-scale phenomena.Model validations need to be further conducted under multiple flow conditions and comprehensivemetrics(e.g.,velocity profiles at different heights,bubbles,or cluster characteristics)for furtherimprovement of the applicability of each numerical method.

CFD simulation for reduction of pyrolusite in fluidized beds

In this study,a CFD model coupled with heterogeneous flow structure,mass transfer equations,and chemical reaction kinetics is established to forecast the pyrolusite reduction reaction behavior.Compared with the previous studies which ignore the volume change of solids phase,the influence of volume shrinkage on reaction and flow behavior is explored in this research.Volume shrinkage of pyrolusite is proved to be non-negligible in predicting the conversion rate.The negligence of volume shrinkage leads to the overestimation of conversion rate for its inaccurate estimation of surface area for reaction.Besides,the influence of volume shrinkage on the reaction is found smaller in the scaled-up reactor.

Numerical simulations of high pressure carbon dioxide fluid fluidized beds

Hydrodynamics of carbon dioxide fluid-particle mixtures are predicted using a low density ratio-based kinetic theory of granular flow in high pressure carbon dioxide fluid fluidized beds.A coexistence of particle waves and particle aggregates exists along bed height.The threshold to identify the occurrence of particle aggregates is suggested based on standard deviation of solid volume fractions in aggregative fluidization.The existence time fractions and frequencies of particle aggregates are predicted along axial direction.The effect of carbon dioxide fluid temperature and pressure on volume fraction and velocity distributions are analyzed at different inlet carbon dioxide velocities and particle densities in high pressure carbon dioxide fluidized beds.Simulated results indicate that the carbon dioxide-particles fluidization transits from particulate to aggregative states with the increase of inlet carbon dioxide ve-locities.The computed fluid volume fractions and heterogeneity indexes are close to the measurements in a high pressure carbon dioxide fluidized bed.

Injection of gas-liquid jets into gas-solid fluidized beds:A review

Injection of gas-liquid sprays into gas-solid fluidized beds finds application in many industries.Effective mixing and distribution of liquid feed and solid bed material is paramount to ensure an efficient and profitable process.Despite its long-term use,the mechanism of liquid injection into gas-solid fluidized beds continues to raise questions and is only partially understood.This paper provides a thorough and up-to-date review of experimental and numerical investigations of gas-liquid sprays into gas-solid fluidized beds conducted over the past decades.Based on the surveyed literature,a phenomenological description of the prevalent mechanisms of gas-liquid injection under different operating conditions is presented.This review identifies suitable computational fluid dynamic models for simulating the mechanisms involved in gas-liquid-solid interactions along with recommendations for future numer-ical and experimental work.

Performance analysis of a 2D numerical model in estimating minimum fluidization velocity for fluidized beds

The minimum fluidization velocity of a fluid-solid particle fluidized bed is the primary focus of this paper.The computationally economic Eulerian Granular model has been used to analyze fluidization for both gas-solid particle and liquid-solid particle fluidized beds.The conventional approach of finding minimum fluidization velocity(umf)is either with a pressure drop across the particle bed or the change in bed height.However,these parameters are often unstable and cannot be used to generalize the degree of fluidization accurately.In this paper,the dominant factor of unstable pressure drop estimation in the 2D Two-Fluid Model(TFM)and a key non-dimensional Euler number has been investigated in deter-mining minimum fluidization velocity for different quasi-2D fluidized beds for different bed sizes,par-ticle sizes,and particle numbers.Averaging assumptions and limitations of these numerical models are discussed in detail for four different fluidized bed cases.A comparative study of the drag model shows little to no influence in unstable pressure drop estimation near fluidization velocity,and all drag models perform similarly.It is observed that particle-particle collision is not the dominant reason for unstable pressure drop near minimum fluidization.Instead,wall effects on the particle bed including frictional losses and wall-particle collision play a key role in unstable pressure drop calculation for the quasi-2D fluidized beds.Pressure drop characteristics alone do not suffice to obtain minimum fluidization ve-locity with 2D TFM using existing models.Thus,a different approach has been proposed to investigate minimum fluidization involving the Euler number,which has shown promising performance in deter-mining minimum fluidization velocity and characterizing fluidization with 2D TFM.Results show con-sistency in Euler number characteristics for all different fluidized bed cases considered in this paper.This can revitalize computationally economic 2D Eulerian simulations,increase the range of possible appli-cations,and provide guidance to the future development of computationally efficient and more accurate numerical models,and empirical correlations for minimum fluidization velocity.

Heat and Mass Transfer for a Nanofluid Flow in Fluidized Bed Dryer in Presence of Induced Magnetic Field

This research entails the study of heat and mass transfer of nanofluid flow in a fluidized bed dryer used in tea drying processes in presence of induced magnetic field. A mathematical model describing the fluid flow in a Fluidized bed dryer was developed using the nonlinear partial differential equations. Due to their non-linearity, the equations were solved numerically by use of the finite difference method. The effects of physical flow parameters on velocity, temperature, concentration and magnetic induction profiles were studied and results were presented graphically. From the mathematical analysis, it was deduced that addition of silver nanoparticles into the fluid flow enhanced velocity and temperature profiles. This led to improved heat transfer in the fluidized bed dryer, hence amplifying the tea drying process. Furthermore, it was noted that induced magnetic field tends to decrease the fluid velocity, which results in uniform distribution of heat leading to efficient heat transfer between the tea particles and the fluid, thus improving the drying process. The research findings provide information to industries on ways to optimize thermal performance of fluidized bed dryers.

PRESSURE FLUCTUATIONS IN GAS-SOLIDS FLUIDIZED BEDS

Pressure fluctuation data measured in a series of fluidized beds with diameters of 0.05, 0.1, 0.29, 0.60 and 1.56 m showed that the maximum amplitude or standard deviation increased with increasing the superficial gas velocity and static bed height for relatively shallow beds and became insensitive to the increase in static bed height in relatively deep beds. The amplitude appeared to be less dependent on the measurement location in the dense bed. Predictions based on bubble passage, bubble eruption at the upper bed surface and bed oscillation all failed to explain all observed trends and underestimated the amplitude of pressure fluctuations, suggesting that the global pressure fluctuations in gas-solids bubbling fluidized beds are the superposition of local pressure variations, bed oscillations and pressure waves generated from the bubble formation in the distributor region, bubble coalescence during their rise and bubble eruption at the upper bed surface.

Numerical investigation of gas bubble behavior in tapered fluidized beds

In this article, the behavior of gas bubbles in tapered fluidized beds is investigated with the use of a two- fluid model incorporating kinetic theory of granular flow. The effects of various parameters such as apex angle, particle size, and particle density on the size distribution and the rise velocity of gas bubbles were examined. In addition, the simulation results for the bubble fraction and axial velocity of gas bubbles were compared with experimental data reported in the literature and good agreement was observed. As the apex angle was increased, the fraction of gas bubbles with large sizes increased and the fraction of bubbles with small sizes decreased. As the particle size increased, the fraction of gas bubbles with large diameters decreased; however, the fraction of bubbles with medium diameters increased. The obtained results clearly indicate that an increased solid density increased the bubble rise velocity up to a specified height and reduced the velocity at larger heights, in tapered fluidized beds.

An exploratory study of three-dimensional MP-PIC-based simulation of bubbling fluidized beds with and without baffles

In this study, the flow characteristics of Geldart A particles in a bobbling fluidized bed with and without perforated plates were simulated by the multiphase particle-in-cell （MP-PlC）-based Eolerian-Lagrangian method. A modified structure-based drag model was developed based on our previous work. Other drag models including the Parker and Wen-Yo-Ergon drag models were also employed to investigate the effects of drag models on the simulation results. Although the modified structure-based drag model better predicts the gas-solid flow dynamics of a baffle-free bubbling fluidized bed in comparison with the experimental data, none of these drag models predict the gas-solid flow in a baffled bobbling floidized bed sufficiently well because of the treatment of baffles in the Barracuda software. To improve the simulation accuracy, future versions of Barracuda should address the challenges of incorporating the bed height and the baffles.

MODELING NONLINEAR DYNAMICS OF CIRCULATING FLUIDIZED BEDS USING NEURAL NETWORKS

In the present work, artificial neural networks (ANNs) were proposed to model nonlinear dynamic behaviors of local voidage fluctuations induced by highly turbulent interactions between the gas and solid phases in circulating fluidized beds. The fluctuations of local voidage were measured by using an optical transmittance probe at various axial and radial positions in a circulating fluidized bed with a riser of 0.10 m in inner diameter and 10 m in height. The ANNs trained with experimental time series were applied to make short-term and long-term predictions of dynamic characteristics in the circulating fluidized bed. An early stop approach was adopted to enhance the long-term prediction capability of ANNs. The performance of the trained ANN was evaluated in terms of time-averaged characteristics, power spectra, cycle number and short-term predictability analysis of time series measured and predicted by the model.

Phase-Plane Invariant Analysis of Pressure Fluctuations in Fluidized Beds

Partial agglomeration is a major problem in fluidized beds. A chaotic analytical method based on the phase-plane invariant of the pressure fluctuations in the fluidized beds has been used to warn of agglomeration at an early stage. Cold tests （no combustion） and hot tests （combustion） in fluidized beds show that the phase-plane invariant of the pressure fluctuations can distinguish the dynamic behavior of fluidized beds with different flow rates in cold tests. With combustion, when the flow rate was kept constant, agglomeration was detected very early by looking at the phase-plane invariant. The phase-plane invariant can be used to distinguish changes in fluidized beds due to changes in the flow rate, agglomeration, or various other factors. Therefore, this reliable agglomeration early warning system can be used for better control of circulating fluidized beds.

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH OF CYLINDER TO BED HEAT TRANSFER IN AGITATED FLUIDIZED BEDS

Cylinder-to-bed heat transfer in agitated fluidized beds was studied experimentally. In the experiments, the aluminum particles were used as bed material, the diameter of those ranged from 0.5 mm to 2 mm. The effects of gas velocity, particles size, and agitator rotary speed on heat transfer were studied. From the experimental results, we have come to the following conclusion: (1) there are optimal ranges for airflow velocity and rotary speed to get optimal heat transfer coefficient; (2) the cylinder-to-bed heat transfer is greatly affected by gas velocity, rotary speed and particles sizes, and the effect of rotary speed on heat transfer is similar to that of gas velocity; (3) higher heat transfer coefficient is obtained with smaller particles.