Comparison of the standard Euler-Euler and hybrid Euler-Lagrange approaches for modeling particle transport in a pilot-scale circulating fluidized bed

Particle transport phenomena in small-scale circulating fluidized beds (CFB) can be simulated using the Euler-Euler, discrete element method, and Euler-Lagrange approaches. In this work, a hybrid Euler-Lagrange model known as the dense discrete phase model (DDPM), which has common roots with the multiphase particle-in-cell model, was applied in simulating particle transport within a mid-sized experimental CFB facility. Implementation of the DDPM into the commercial ANSYS Fluent CFD package is relatively young in comparison with the granular Eulerian model. For that reason, validation of the DDPM approach against experimental data is still required and is addressed in this paper. Additional difficulties encountered in modeling fluidization processes are connected with long calculation times. To reduce times, the complete boiler models are simplified to include just the combustion chamber. Such simplifications introduce errors in the predicted solid distribution in the boiler. To investigate the consequences of model reduction, simulations were made using the simplified and complete pilot geometries and compared with experimental data. All simulations were performed using the ANSYSFLUENT 14.0 package. A set of user defined functions were used in the hybrid DDPM and Euler-Euler approaches to recirculate solid particles.