DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Coarse-grained discrete particle simulations of particle segregation in rotating fluidized beds in vortex chambers [Discrete particle simulations of particle segregation in rotating fluidized beds in vortex chambers]

Journal Article · · Powder Technology
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Morgantown, WV (United States)
  2. National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Morgantown, WV (United States); AECOM, Morgantown, WV (United States)
  3. National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Morgantown, WV (United States); Univ. catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium)

Vortex chambers allow the generation of rotating fluidized beds, offering high-G intensified gas-solid contact, gas-solids separation and solids-solids segregation. Focusing on binary particle mixtures and fixing the density and diameter of the heavy/large particles, transient batch CFD-coarse-grained DPM simulations were carried out with varying densities or sizes of the light/small particles to evaluate to what extent combining these three functionalities is possible within a vortex chamber of given design. Both the rate and quality of segregation were analyzed. Within a relatively wide density and size range, fast and efficient segregation takes place, with an inner and slower rotating bed of the lighter/small particles forming within the outer and faster rotating bed of the heavier/large particles. Simulations show that the contamination of the outer bed with lighter particles occurs more easily than contamination of the inner bed with heavier particles and increases with decreasing difference in size or density of the particles. Bubbling in the inner bed is observed with an inner bed of very low density or small particles. Porosity plots show that vortex chambers with a sufficient number of gas inlet slots have to be used to guarantee a uniform gas distribution and particle bed. Lastly, the flexibility of particle segregation in vortex chambers with respect to the gas flow rate is demonstrated.

Research Organization:
National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Morgantown, WV (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE); USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
FE0004000
OSTI ID:
1415469
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1550099
Report Number(s):
A-CONTR-PUB-054; PII: S0032591017304333
Journal Information:
Powder Technology, Vol. 318, Issue C; ISSN 0032-5910
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 26 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science