Validation of Bubble Properties of a Bubbling Fluidized Bed Reactor Using CFD with Imaging Experiments

ABSTRACT

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models are considered to be the solution in modeling and scale-up of unit operations and chemical reactors. However, until recently there was no independent verification that CFD can actually work for heterogeneous reactors. This paper offers an attempt to verify bubble property predictions against experimental measurements obtained in polyethylene-air and glass-beads-air laboratory-scale fluidized bed columns. The obtained simulation results qualitatively match experimental observations. In some cases the agreement is even quantitative. As a result, the claim can be made that we are in the right direction but significant work is still needed for full quantitative validation of the CFD models.

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