Study on the solid-liquid suspension behavior in a tank stirred by the long-short blades impeller

We investigated the solid–liquid suspension characteristics in the tank with a liquid height/tank diameter ratio of 1.5 stirred by a novel long-short blades(LSB) impeller by the Euler granular flow model coupled with the standard k–ε turbulence model. After validation of the local solid holdup by experiments,numerical predictions have been successfully used to explain the influences of impeller rotating speed,particle density, particle size, liquid viscosity and initial solid loading on the solid suspension behavior,i.e. smaller particles with lower density are more likely to be suspended evenly in the liquid with higher liquid viscosity. At a low impeller rotating speed(N), increase in N leads to an obvious improvement in the solid distribution homogeneity. Moreover, the proposed LSB impeller has obvious advantages in the uniform distribution of the solid particles compared with single Rushton turbine(RT), dual RT impellers or CBY hydrofoil impeller under the same power consumption.

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.

Experimental and numerical study of pseudo-2D circulating fluidized beds

We present experimental investigations and numerical simulations of a pseudo-2D riser. Experiments were performed for various airflow rates, particle types/diameters, and particle size distributions. Pres- sure distributions along the wall of the riser were measured, Additional measurements from a smaller pseudo-2D riser （Kallio et al., 2009; Shah et al., 2012） were used to analyze horizontal solids volume fraction profiles. The experimental data were compared with simulation results carried out using an Euler-Euler approach, A mesh sensitivity study was conducted for numerical simulations and effects associated with simplifying real 3D geometry to a 2D model were examined. In addition, the effect of using an algebraic equation to represent the granular temperature versus a full partial differential equation also was examined for numerical simulations. Results showed small but significant near-wall sensitivity of the flow variables to mesh size. Substantial differences in mean pressure, solids distribution, and solid velocities were obtained, when 2D and 3D simulation results were compared. Finally, applying the simplified granular temperature equation for turbulent fluidization and for dilute-phase transport can lead to incorrect predictions in models,

Numerical prediction of flow hydrodynamics of wet molecular sieve particles in a liquid-fluidized bed

The Eulerian-Eulerian framework was used in the numerical simulation of liquid hydrodynamics and particle motion in liquid-fluidized beds. The kinetic theory of granular flow, which accounts for the viscous drag influence on the interstitial liquid phase, was used in combination with two-fluid models to simulate unsteady liquid-solid two-phase flows. We focus on local unsteady features predicted by the numerical models. The solid fraction power spectrum was analyzed. A typical flow pattern, such as core annular flow and particle back-mixing near the wall region of liquid-solid fluidized beds is obtained from this calculation. Effects of the restitution coefficient of particle-particle collisions on the distribution of granular pressure and temperature are discussed. Good agreement was achieved between the simulated results and experimental findings.

On continuum modeling using kinetic-frictional models in high shear granulation

This short communication demonstrates why extreme caution has to be taken when applying conven- tional kinetic-frictional closures to continuum modeling of high shear granulation （HSG）, Conventional models refer to closure laws where the kinetic and frictional stresses are summed up to obtain the total stress field, In the simple, dense, and sheared system ofa Couette shear cell, the effect of the lack of scale separation on the model predictions is examined, both quantitatively and qualitatively. It is observed that the spatial resolution has a significant effect on the magnitude of the kinetic and frictional contributions to the solid phase stresses. With this new investigation and previous studies of HSG, it is concluded that conventional kinetic-frictional models are inadequate for continuum modeling of HSG.