Flow Measurement and Instrumentation 21 (2010) 212218

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Flow Measurement and Instrumentation

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/flowmeasinst

ECT measurement and CFDDEM simulation of particle distribution in a down-flow fluidized bed
Tong Zhao a, , Masahiro Takei a , Deog-Hee Doh b
a b

Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Science and Technology, Nihon University, 1-8-14, Kanda Surugadai, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-8308, Japan Division of Mechanical and Information Engineering, Korea Maritime University, #1, Dongsam-Dong, Yeongdo-Gu, Busan 606-791, Republic of Korea

article

info

abstract
In the present study, a combined model of computational fluid dynamics and the discrete element method (CFDDEM) was used to simulate the particle distributions in a down-flow fluidized bed (DFB) with a newly designed particleair distributor. In the simulation model, particle motion is calculated by solving Newtons equations and the flow field of air is predicted by the NavierStokes equations. The calculation was made for the same geometric and operating conditions as the experiment which was carried out for comparison with the simulation using electrical capacitance tomography (ECT). The numerical predictions for the axial and radial profiles of the particle distribution agreed well with the experimental results. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 12 July 2009 Received in revised form 25 December 2009 Accepted 29 December 2009 Keywords: Electrical capacitance tomography Discrete element method Computational fluid dynamics Down-flow fluidized bed

1. Introduction A circulating fluidized bed is an important device in various chemical industrial processes. According to the flow direction, the circulating fluidized bed can be classified into two basic modes: upflow system in which gas and particles flow concurrently upward; and down-flow system (down-flow fluidized bed) in which both gas and solids flow in the direction of gravity. Previous investigations have shown that the distribution of particles and the contact time between gas and solids in a down-flow fluidized bed (DFB) are much more uniform than those in the riser [1,2]. Due to these significant advantages, the DFB has been proposed for some processes such as the fluid catalytic cracking process, where extremely short but uniform contact between gas and solids is required to prevent overreacting. DFBs have therefore attracted many investigations in the past decade. Various researches have been carried out in the past to study the flow behaviours in DFBs using either experimental or simulation approaches. For example, Wang et al. [3] provided the detailed information of the axial airsolid velocity profiles using a fiber-optic probe; Huang et al. [4] presented the mixing behaviours of both air and solids in a DFB by a phosphor tracer technique; Zhang et al. [5] simulated the particle aggregation behaviours using the combined computational fluid dynamics and discrete element method (CFDDEM). However, the results from experiments

Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 3 3259 0749; fax: +81 3 3259 0749. E-mail address: polomarslee@hotmail.com (T. Zhao).

and simulation are sometimes not comparable because they were carried out under different parameter conditions. Moreover, most of these studies were focused on the fully developed region (the constant velocity region [3]); the gas and solid flow patterns in the entrance region of the DFB (less than 2 m from the DFB inlet), which is very important for the particle distribution behaviours, were ignored. Therefore, in order to fully understand the mechanisms of flow development, it is important to clarify the particle distribution behaviours within the entrance region of the DFB from the viewpoint of both experiment and simulation. From the experimental viewpoint, electrical capacitance tomography (ECT), which has become increasingly popular for multiphase flow measurement, is a proper solution to visualize the particle distribution in a DFB [6,7]. Recently, the ECT technique has been successfully applied to many industrial processes, such as fluidized bed coalescence [8], pneumatic conveyance [9] and the particle coating process [10]. On the other hand, the CFDDEM simulation, which has been proved to be effective in the study of particlefluid flow systems, as briefly reviewed by various investigators [11,12], is chosen to simulate the two-phase flow in a DFB. In the CFDDEM model, the motion of particles is modelled as a discrete phase, described by Newtons laws of motion on an individual particle scale, while the flow of fluids (gas or liquid) is treated as a continuum phase, described by the NavierStokes equations. In this work, an ECT system consisting of three 270 mm CT sensors is designed for particle distribution visualization in a DFB with a newly designed distributor. The distribution images of particle volume fraction were obtained at 10 ms intervals for different parameter combinations. Simultaneously, a numerical simulation of

0955-5986/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.flowmeasinst.2009.12.008

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213

Nomenclature mi vp,i Mass of particle i Translational velocity of particle i Rotational velocity of particle i Inertia moment of particle i Fluid drag force acting on particle i Contact force Gravity Torque caused by the contact force and inertia moment of particle i Spring stiffness in the normal direction Spring stiffness in the tangential direction Coefficient of viscous dissipation in the normal direction Coefficient of viscous dissipation in the tangential direction Particle displacement in the normal direction Particle displacement in the tangential direction Friction coefficient Void fraction Velocity vector of fluid Pressure of fluid Fluid viscosity Volume of a computational cell Particle diameter Particle density

spring

Ii fa,i fc Gi Ti kn kt

dashpot friction slider

Fig. 1. Models of contact force.

n t
xn xt

fct = f |fcn |

xt

|xt |

if |fct | > f |fcn |

(5)

f
u p

V
dp

the particle behaviour in the DFB was undertaken by the CFDDEM model under the same parameter conditions. The simulation data were then compared with the experimental results. 2. Governing equations of CFDDEM simulation 2.1. Solid phase In this mathematical model, the solid phase is treated as a discrete phase that is described by a conventional DEM. The movement of individual particles is evaluated by Newtons equation of motion which includes the effects of gravitational force, contact force, and fluid force. The translational and rotational motions of a particle i at any time t in the reactor are determined by momentum balance, given by mi Ii dvp,i dt

where kn and kt are the spring stiffnesses in the normal and tangential directions, respectively, n and t are the coefficients of viscous dissipation in the normal and tangential directions, respectively, xn and xt are the particle displacements in the normal and tangential directions, respectively, and f is the friction coefficient. As seen in the above equations, it is clear that the stiffness, coefficient of viscous dissipation and friction coefficient, which can be obtained from the physical properties of the particles, must be determined before the calculation of the contact force. In the present work, these parameters were determined by the method proposed in previous papers [14,15]. Moreover, the spring stiffness in the tangential direction kt is assumed to be equal to kn , and the coefficient of viscous dissipation in the tangential direction t is also assumed to be equal to n . Here, the contact force model is also used to simulate the interaction between a particle and the wall. 2.2. Gas phase The gas phase is treated as a continuous phase and modelled in a way similar to the one used in the conventional two-fluid model. The governing equations are the conservations of mass and momentum in terms of the local mean variables over a computational cell, given by

+ t

( u) = 0
n

(6) fa,i

= fa,i + fc + Gi

(1) (2)

(g u) i =1 + (g uu) = p + 2 u (7) t V where is the void fraction; u is the velocity vector of the fluid; p is the pressure of the fluid; is the fluid viscosity; V is the volume
of a computational cell, and n is the number of particles inside the cell. The fluid drag force acting on each particle inside the computational cell can be calculated by fa,i = (vp,i u) V . (8) The coefficient can be determined by Erguns equation ( 0.8) [16] or Wen and Yus equation ( > 0.8) [17]. In the present simulation, was deduced based on the summarized equations in previous works [15,18]. 2.3. Simulation conditions The simulated fluidized bed consists of a specially designed distributor and a rectangular DFB container. Fig. 2 shows the configuration of the newly designed distributor. As shown in Fig. 2, this distributor consists of one annular particle inlet and four welldistributed side air nozzles. The inside and outside diameters of the annular particle inlet are 122 mm and 212 mm, respectively. In the present simulation, the geometrical parameters of the simulation

di

dt where mi is the mass of particle i; vp,i and i are the translational and rotational velocity of particle i; Ii is the inertia moment of particle i; fa,i is the fluid drag force acting on particle i; fc is the contact force; G is the gravity of particle i; Ti is the torque caused by the contact force and the inertia moment of particle i. Cundall and Strack [13] proposed a typical model to formulate the particleparticle interaction. Based on their research, the contact force between two spherical particles can be modelled by the simple concept of a spring, dash-pot and friction slider, as shown in Fig. 1. The contact force fc can be divided into a normal contact force fcn and a tangential contact force fct , as follows [14]: fcn = kn xn n fct = kt xt t dxn dt dxt dt (3) if |fct | f |fcn | (4)

= Ti

214 Table 1 Simulation conditions. Gas phase Fluid type Density (kg/m ) Bed geometry (m)
3

T. Zhao et al. / Flow Measurement and Instrumentation 21 (2010) 212218

Particle phase Air 0.108 3.5 104 (thickness) 0.27 (width) 1.98 (height) Case 1 20 Case 2 12 2.0 105 Particle shape Density (kg/m ) Particle diameter (m) Number of particles Spring stiffness (N/m) Friction coefficient Time step (s) Acceleration of gravity (m/s2 )
3

Spherical 108 3.5 104 106 80 0.3 5 106 9.8

Superficial velocity (m/s) Viscosity (kg/m s)

Fig. 2. Top view of the distributor.

model are the same as the for the real experimental equipment. The flow of gas and particles is assumed to be two dimensional since the thickness of the bed is equal to the particle diameter, which is much less than the bed width. Fig. 3 shows the calculation domain and the grid arrangements of the two-dimensional (2D) simulation model. In this 2D model, the particle motion which is perpendicular to the paper was not considered. The annular particle inlet was simplified into two particle inlets with a width of 45 mm, and the distance between these two inlets is 122 mm, as shown in Fig. 3. The number of the air nozzles was reduced from four to two, as shown in Fig. 3. The widths of these two air nozzles are 24 mm, which is the same as the diameter of the real nozzles. The angle between the centre lines of the side nozzle and the centre line of the DFB container is 45 . The bottom of the distributor connects with a DFB container that is 1.98 m in height and 0.27 m in width. The calculation domain is divided into small calculation cells. The cell size for the calculation of gas motion is 6.75 mm 6.75 mm, and the total number of grid cells is 13,196. Each cell consists of the gas phase contacting with particles, and the void fraction of each cell can be defined by the number of particles existing in the cell. As is usual in many numerical calculations for flow fields, the differential equations of the gas phase were solved by the finite difference method. The well-known numerical method, the semi-implicit method for the pressure-link equation (SIMPLE) scheme, was used. A no-slip condition is used for the air phase at the walls and particles are allowed to have frontal collisions with the wall. The simulation is started with the random generation of particles without overlaps at the top of the particle inlet. Then, after a gravitational settling, the particles will drop into the calculation domain. The parameter settings of the simulation are summarized in Table 1. Because of the huge particle numbers and limited computation capacity, the particle diameter is set as 350 m,

Fig. 3. Calculation domain and grid arrangement.

which is around five times the real particle diameter. Then, in order to keep the similarity of flow in the simulation, a correlation model proposed by Washino et al. [19] has been used to adjust the simulation conditions, such as the superficial velocity, gas density, gas viscosity and particle density. The time step for simulation is calculated as follows [15]: 2 5

t =

(dp )3 p
6kn

(9)

where dp is the particle diameter, kn is the spring stiffness and p is the particle density. 3. Experiments using ECT In this study, the experimental equipment, which consists of a hopper tank, a sender, an airparticle distributor, a circulating pipe, a cyclone separator, and a receiver tank, has been constructed, as shown in Fig. 4. The DFB, which is connected to the bottom of the distributor, has a diameter of 270 mm and lengths of 5.3 m. Three capacitance tomography sensors each with a length of 0.66 m were wrapped around the circumference of the DFB at different vertical positions. Particles were supplied from the hopper tank to the distributor inlet. The geometry of the distributor is the same as in the simulation model, except that the particle inlet is annular and four well-distributed side nozzles were adopted. Fig. 5 shows the schematic diagram of the ECT sensor. The details of the ECT sensor have been reported in the authors former research paper [6]. The particulate solids used for this study were fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) catalyst particles, which have a particle

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215

Fig. 4. Experimental equipment.

the red pixels indicate high solid concentration of 0.2. As the solid concentration in an image pixel decreases, the image pixel turns blue, which indicates air, as shown by the colour bar. In the experiment, the initial space resolution of the reconstructed particle distribution image was 32 32 pixels, which was improved to 120 120 pixels using the state transition matrix method [21]. Based on the high-resolution images, a three-dimensional (3D) image of the particle distribution (time and 2D space image) was established. Table 3 shows the results with a 3D resolution of 100 (time domain) 120 120 (2D space domain). In Table 3, only a quarter of the 3D image is shown in order to indicate the particle distribution at the centre region. The experimental images in Table 3 show that, at a distance of 0.33 m from the entrance of the DFB, a high-solid-concentration area, which represents solid aggregation (cluster), always exists in the near-wall region and at the centre of the DFB. As the measurement position moves downstream, the clusters become smaller, or even disappear; thus, the particle distribution becomes uniform. Moreover, as the air superficial velocity decrease from 8.3 m/s (Case 1) to 5.1 m/s (Case 2), the particle volume fraction becomes higher. On the other hand, qualitatively, the simulation images show the same properties as the experimental result shown above. After dropping from the inlet, the particles concentrate together and this results in cluster formation due to the geometric configuration of the particle inlet. Then, as the particles move downstream, a high-velocity air flow with relative high drag forces is applied in both axial and radial directions. The force destroys the clusters and disperses the particles. It was found that the air superficial velocity strongly influences the cluster formation. Specifically, as the air superficial velocity decreases, the clusters near the entrance of the DFB become more noticeable and cause a non-uniform solid distribution. 4.2. Axial and radial profiles of particle volume fraction In the experiment, the average particle volume fraction can be calculated from the reconstructed images as follows:

(a) Frontal view.

(b) Section view. Fig. 5. Overview of the ECT sensor.

Table 2 Experimental conditions. Case 1 Particle circulation rate (kg/m2 s) Air superficial velocity (m/s) 175 8.3 Case 2 175 5.1

Nt

Ny

Nx

Nt (Nx Ny Nw ) t =1 y=1 x=1

Exyt (%)

(10)

density of 1200 kg/m3 , a mean diameter of 69.6 m and a relative permittivity of 2.7. The experimental conditions are shown in Table 2. The hopper was adjusted to provide a 175 kg/m2 s particle flow rate. The air flow rate at each air nozzle was set as 0.118 m3 /s for Case 1 and 0.073 m3 /s for Case 2. After a few seconds delay, in order to allow the particle to flow in a stable manner, the capacitance measurements started at base times using a combined system consisting of a capacitance acquisition device and a high-speed multiplexer. The time interval to acquire the 66 capacitance measurements from 12 electrodes in each cross-section was t = 10.0 ms. The total measurement time is 5 s, and the total number of frames of the reconstructed image Nt is 500. The generalized vector sampled pattern matching (GVSPM) method was used for image reconstruction [20]. 4. Results and discussion 4.1. Distribution image of particle volume fraction Table 3 shows the distribution images of particle volume fraction obtained from experiment and simulation. In these images,

where Nt is the total frame number of the reconstructed images, Nw is the number of pixels positioned outside the pipe or in the thickness of the pipe wall, Nx and Ny are the cross-sectional space resolutions, and Exyt is the particle volume fraction value of pixel (x, y) at time interval t. Fig. 6 reveals the axial profiles of the average particle volume fraction obtained from the experiment and simulation for Case 1 and Case 2. In Fig. 6, both the experiment and simulation results show that the average particle volume fraction decreases as the axial position goes downstream. The reason for this phenomenon could be the slip velocity between the particles and the air phase. Wang et al. [3] put forward that there are three sections of particle velocity in solidair two-phase down-flow: the first acceleration section, the second acceleration section and the constant velocity section. Following this theory, as the particles drop down, the particle velocity will increase in the first and second acceleration sections. Then, as particles reach the constant velocity section in which the air fluid drag becomes upward and equal to the particle gravity, the particle velocity will level off. During this process, the air velocity remains almost constant. Therefore, the slip velocity between the particles and the air phase decreases as the particles drop downstream, and this also causes the decrease of particle volume fraction. However, a difference between the experimental and simulation values can be observed, as shown in Fig. 6(a) and

216 Table 3 Distribution images of particle volume fraction. Case 1 Experiment

T. Zhao et al. / Flow Measurement and Instrumentation 21 (2010) 212218

Case 2 Simulation (t = 0.2 s) Experiment Simulation (t = 0.2 s)

Experiment

Simulation

Experiment

Simulation

Particle volume fraction [-]

0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02 0 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 Distance from the distributor h [m] 1.6 1.8

Particle volume fraction [-]

0.1

0.1 0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02 0 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 Distance from the distributor h [m]

(a) Case 1.

(b) Case 2.

Fig. 6. Axial profiles of particle volume fraction.

(b). This can be explained by noting the fact that the experiment is more complicated than the present simplified simulation model, especially due to the 3D flow and interactions, particle size distribution and particle shape. Same as the phenomenon observed from the distribution images in Table 3, the particle volume

fraction in Case 2 is higher than in Case 1. Furthermore, the experimental and simulation difference becomes bigger in Case 2. Fig. 7 shows the radial profiles of the particle volume fraction obtained from the experiment and the simulation. The radial profile of particle distribution in the simulation shows a good

T. Zhao et al. / Flow Measurement and Instrumentation 21 (2010) 212218

h=0.33m (Experiment) h=0.33m (Simulation) h=0.99m (Experiment) h=0.99m (Simulation) h=1.65m (Experiment) h=1.65m (Simulation) h=0.33m (Experiment) h=0.33m (Simulation) h=0.99m (Experiment) h=0.99m (Simulation) h=1.65m (Experiment) h=1.65m (Simulation)

217

0.1 Particle volume fraction [-] 0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02 0 Particle volume fraction [-]

0.1 0.08 0.06 0.04 0.02 0

15

30 45 60 75 90 105 120 Radial distance from the centre [mm]

135

15

30 45 60 75 90 105 120 Radial distance from the centre [mm]

135

(a) Case 1.

(b) Case 2. Fig. 7. Radial profiles of particle volume fraction.

agreement with the experiment. As shown in Fig. 7(a), for both the experiment and the simulation, a low particle volume fraction always occurs in the region between the centre and the wall of the pipe, while the highest particle volume fraction can be observed near the wall. As the axial position goes downstream, the profiles of the particle radial distribution became increasingly flat, which means that the particle distribution becomes uniform. In Case 2, the same feature of the radial particle distribution profiles can also be observed in Fig. 7(b), but the particle volume fraction value is higher than that in Case 1. The above radial profiles of particle volume fraction are very reasonable. In the present work, particles were introduced from an annular particle inlet as shown above. By means of the distributor, the air velocity was inclined with respect to the gravity direction because of the side nozzle. After dropping from the inlet, particles are accelerated not only in the axial direction, but also in the radial direction. Under the effect of this radial force, the particles move away from the annular region towards the centre and the wall, and as a result, higher particle volume fraction regions were formed at the centre and near the wall. However, as the particles move downstream, the high-velocity air at the centre imposed a radial fluid drag force on the particles, and caused the particles to move away from the centre. And also, because of the friction between the airparticle suspensions and the wall, particles near the wall also move away, which causes the clusters near the wall to disperse. 5. Conclusion A numerical simulation for particle distribution in a downflow fluidized bed was performed by combining the DEM and CFD in a two-dimensional domain. At the same time, an experiment under the same parameter conditions using the ECT technique was carried out for comparison with the simulation. The distribution images of the particle volume fraction were obtained from both the experiment and the simulation, and the axial and radial profiles of the particle volume fraction were extracted from these images. Qualitatively, the comparison results between simulation and experiment are encouraging. The results are summarized as follows. In the axial direction, due to the increasing slip velocity between the particles and air, the particle volume fraction decreases as the particles descend, but a decrease in the air superficial velocity causes an increase in the particle volume fraction value. In the radial direction, the highest particle volume fractions can be observed near the wall, and a relatively low particle volume fraction in an annular region always exists near the entrance of the DFB. However, the particles become well distributed as they move

further downstream. The reason for this could be the radial drag force imposed by the air phase. In this study, it was also found that there are some differences in the particle volume fraction values between the experiment and the simulation, and to resolve these differences, further research should be devoted to improving the simulation by using multi-sized particles and a 3D model. Acknowledgements The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support provided by the Information Center of Powder Technology Japan, and the Grant-in-aid for scientific research B (21360088) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. The authors also wish to acknowledge the support provided by the Rflow Co. Ltd in the DEM simulation. And this work was partly supported by the NRL PJT of Korea Research Foundation of Korea (R0A-2008-000-20069-0). References
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