Experimental and computational study of pressure drop and void fraction in a bubbling fluidized bed

Abstract

The aim of this work is to study flow behaviour in a fluidized bed with different mixtures of particles. Mathematical simulation is an alternative way to study the fluidization behaviour. Experiments are performed in a cylindrical bed with a uniform air distribution. Spherical glass particles with different mixtures of particles are used in the experiments. The pressure and void fraction variations are observed for two different powders and mixtures of the powders. The commercial CFD code Fluent 6.3 is used for the corresponding simulations. Eulerian-Eulerian model are used to simulate a multiphase bubbling fluidized bed. The influence of particle size distribution on the bubble size, pressure and void fraction variation along the bed has been investigated computationally. The computational results are compared to the experimental data and the discrepancies are discussed. © 2011 WIT Press.