Numerical Study of the Influence of Horizontal Tube Banks on the Hydrodynamics of a Dense Gas-Solid Bubbling Fluidized Bed

Numerical study of the influence of tube-bank on the hydrodynamics of a freely bubbling fluidized bed is relatively less reported in the literature. In this paper, results obtained from CFD study of a two dimensional gas-solid fluidized beds with horizontal tube-bank are compared with the published experimental data (Hull et. al., 1999). A 2-D bed, 1 m high and 0.2 m wide with tubes of diameter 0.026 m was taken for the calculations. Two different tube arrangements of staggered and inline pitch with center-to-center distance of 0.05 m were considered. Air was used as the fluidizing medium and ballotini glass (diameter: 230 mm and density: 2723 kg/m3) was the fluidized material. Air velocities used were 0.15 m/s and 0.187 m/s. The Eulerian-Eularian Two-Fluid CFD model was employed for modeling the momentum equations for both the gas and the solid phase with kinetic theory modification for the solid phase to account for the inter-particle interactions. Hydrodynamic features, such as, bubble size and bubble rise velocity and their variation with height within and outside the tube bank showed good agreement with the data of Hull et al.(1999)