Numerical simulation and experimental validation of the hydrodynamics in a 350 kW bubbling fluidized bed combustor

Abstract

This paper presents experimentally validated three-dimensional numerical simulation of a 350 kW pilot-scale bubbling fluidized bed combustor, which has been developed by using commercial CFD software package, Fluent 14.5. The solid particle distribution has been simulated by using the multiphase Euler–Euler Approach. The gas–solid momentum exchange coefficients were calculated by using Syamlal and O’Brien drag functions. The CFD model is created as the realistic representation of the actual pilot-scale bubbling fluidized bed. All simulations are performed in transient mode for an operation time of about 350 s. The experimental study is performed with silica sand particles with mean particle size of 0.6 mm and density of 1639 kg/m3. The bed was filled with particles up to a height of 0.30 m. The same conditions are used for the simulations. The present work combines both experimental and computational studies, where the CFD-Simulation results are compared to those obtained by experiments. The predicted simulation results of minimum fluidization velocity and pressure drop values of the pilot-scale bubbling fluidized bed combustor have good agreement with the experimental measurements.