The Influence of Spiral Blade Distributor on Pressure Drop in a Swirling Fluidized Bed

Abstract

This work reports studies on the aerodynamics of air flow in the plenum chamber of a swirling fluidized bed. The study focused on the effect of annular spiral blade distributor configuration whereby the effect of various pitch length (60 mm, 80 mm and 100 mm) via various horizontal inclination angle (0°, 12° and 15°). The CFD method is used to compute and obtain the performance results as well as pressure drop data. Moreover, high pressure drop is undesirable since high pumping power is needed to sustain the pressure needed to run the swirling fluidized bed processes. It should be as low as possible to reduce the power being wasted during the processes. The numerical result at the parameter of horizontal blade inclination of 15° via pitch length of spiral blade distributor of 100 mm shows that effect on large overlapping length of blade (trapezoidal) area consume less pressure drop.