CFD simulation of bed expansion and gas hold up behaviour of gas-liquid-solid fluidized bed

Abstract

Three-phase fluidization is a process used to bring into contact gas, liquid and solids, and in which the solid particles are kept in suspension by a through flow of liquid. Three-phase fluidized beds are used extensively in the refining, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, food and environmental industries. The fundamental characteristics of a three-phase fluidized bed have been recently studied extensively. The gas holdup is one of the most important characteristics for analysing the performance of a three-phase fluidized bed. In the present work FLUENT has been used to study gas-liquid-solid fluidization. CFD simulations have been done for a column of height 1.88 m and diameter 0.1 m containing glass beads as solid particles of size 2.18 mm. In the present work, involving three phase fluidized bed, CFD analysis of gas holdup and bed expansion behaviour have been studied. ANSYS has been used to generate a 3D fine grid. The gas (air) and liquid (water) is injected at the base with different velocities.