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An efficient and reliable predictive method for fluidized bed simulation
Author(s) -
Lu Liqiang,
Benyahia Sofiane,
Li Tingwen
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.15832
Subject(s) - speedup , granularity , computation , fluidized bed , scale (ratio) , discrete element method , flow (mathematics) , computer science , fluidization , tracking (education) , algorithm , mechanics , simulation , computational science , parallel computing , physics , thermodynamics , psychology , pedagogy , quantum mechanics , operating system
In past decades, the continuum approach was the only practical technique to simulate large‐scale fluidized bed reactors because discrete approaches suffer from the cost of tracking huge numbers of particles and their collisions. This study significantly improved the computation speed of discrete particle methods in two steps: First, the time‐driven hard‐sphere (TDHS) algorithm with a larger time‐step is proposed allowing a speedup of 20–60 times; second, the number of tracked particles is reduced by adopting the coarse‐graining technique gaining an additional 2–3 orders of magnitude speedup of the simulations. A new velocity correction term was introduced and validated in TDHS to solve the over‐packing issue in dense granular flow. The TDHS was then coupled with the coarse‐graining technique to simulate a pilot‐scale riser. The simulation results compared well with experiment data and proved that this new approach can be used for efficient and reliable simulations of large‐scale fluidized bed systems. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J , 63: 5320–5334, 2017