A Simulation and Experimental Study of the Hydrodynamics of a Bubbling Fluidized Bed of Linear Low Density Polyethylene Using Bubble Properties and Pressure Fluctuations

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this work is to use power spectral analysis of pressure fluctuations in conjunction with bubble properties obtained from an advanced experimental technique to validate the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of an air/polyethylene fluidized bed. The current Eulerian models based on the kinetic theory of granular flow have been studied extensively for systems that have ideal characteristics for the solid phase. However, the models need to be investigated for particles such as polyethylene that do not have ideal characteristics with respect to shape, size distribution and elastic character from a simulation standpoint. Unlike previous works, which mostly use average bubble properties for validation, this work utilizes both pressure fluctuations and bubble properties of a high temporal and spatial resolution for the validation process. Results have indicated that significant work is required to adapt the solid phase model in the MFIX (Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchange) CFD code for particles such as polyethylene.

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