Jet dispersion and deposition of charged particles in confined chambers

Dispersion and surface deposition of charged particles by gas-solids jets in confined chambers are constantly encountered in many industrial applications such as in electrostatic precipitation and dry powder coating processes. Understanding and control of flow patterns and trajectories of charged particles are important to the optimal design and operation of such devices. In this study, modeling of flow fields and particle trajectories of dilute gas-solid two-phase flows with charged particles in confined chambers is performed. The dilute gas-solid two-phase flows are simulated by use of a hybrid Eulerian-Lagrangian approach with the one-way coupling between the gaseous phase and particle phase. The space charge distribution is included as a source term in equations of motion or Lagrangian equation of charged particles, which in turn depends on the particle trajectories that determine the space charge distribution. Our modeling predictions suggested that the electrostatic charge plays a significant role in particle radial dispersion. Effect of voltage has limited influence on particle trajectories however it can have a big impact on the residence time. Cone angle has a significant effect on the structure of flow field. For cone with a larger cone angle （typically over 15°）, there will be a flow separation along the side wall near the flow entrance region. By comparing with the conical chamber, the cylindrical chamber has a big vortex and three smaller vortexes in the lower part of the chamber, which would complicate the particle dispersion with or without the coupling of charging.

Two and three dimensional modeling of fluidized bed with multiple jets in a DEM-CFD framework

Fluidized beds with multiple jets have widespread industrial applications. The objective of this paper is to investigate the jet interactions and hydrodynamics of a fluidized bed with multiple jets. Discrete element modeling coupled with in-house CFD code GenlDLEST has been used to simulate a bed with nine jets. The results are compared with published experiments. Mono dispersed particles of size 550 ~m are used with 1.4 times the minimum fluidization velocity of the particles. Both two and three dimensional computations have been performed. To the best of our knowledge, the results presented in this paper are the first full 3D simulations of a fluidized bed performed with multiple jets. Discrepancies between the experiment and simulations are discussed in the context of the dimensionality of the simulations. The 2D solid fraction profile compares well with the experiment close to the distributor plate. At higher heights, the 2D simulation over-predicts the solid fraction profiles near the walls. The 3D simulation on the other hand is better able to capture the solid fraction profile higher up in the bed compared to that near the distributor plate. Similarly, the normalized particle velocities and the particle fluxes compare well with the experiment closer to the distributor plate for the 2D simulation and the freeboard for the 3D simulation, respectively. A lower expanded bed height is predicted in the 2D simulation compared to the 3D simulation and the experiment. The results obtained from DEM computations show that a 2D simulation can be used to capture essential jetting trends near the distributor plate regions, whereas a full scale 3D simulation is needed to capture the bubbles near the freeboard regions. These serve as validations for the experiment and help us understand the complex jet interaction and solid circulation patterns in a multiple jet fluidized bed system.

Three-dimensional simulation of liquid injection,film formation and transport,in fluidized beds

Liquid injection, and film formation and transport in dense-phase gas-solids fluidized beds are numerically simulated in three dimensions using a collisional exchange model that is based on the mechanism that collisions cause transfer of liquid mass, momentum, and energy between particles. In the model, each of the particles is represented by a solid core and a liquid film surrounding the core. The model is incorporated in the framework of the commercial code Barracuda developed by CPFD Software. The commercial software is an advanced CFD-based computational tool where the particles are treated as discrete entities, calculated by the MP-PIC method, and tracked using the Lagrangian method. Details of the collisional liquid transfer model have been previously presented in O＇Rourke, Zhao, and Snider （2009）; this paper presents new capabilities and proof-testing of the collision model and a new method to better quantify the penetration length. Example calculations of a fluidized bed without liquid injection show the expected effect of collisions on the reduction of granular temperature （fluctuational kinetic energy） of the bed. When applied to liquid injection into a dense-phase fluidized bed under different conditions, the model predicts liquid penetration lengths comparable to the experiments. In addition, the simulation reveals for the first time the dynamic mixing of the liquid droplets with the bed particles and the transient distribution of the droplets inside the bed.