A CFD Investigation on the Effect of IPSBR Operational Conditions on Liquid Phase Hydrodynamics

This study used a computational fluid dynamics simulation of an inert-particle spouted-bed reactor, which consists of a cylindrical vessel with a conical base, to investigate the effect of different operational parameters on the hydrodynamics of the process. The reactor was composed of three phases, namely, air, water, and mixing particles 0.850 m high and 0.078 m in diameter. Water was the continuous phase, whereas air was the dispersed phase operating in the turbulent region. All runs were accomplished in a 2D axisymmetric, unsteady, and Eulerian model using ANSYS Fluent 15 software. The influence of feed gas velocity, orifice diameter, liquid head, mixing particles diameter, and mixing particle loading on the water velocity distribution, water volume fraction, eddy viscosities distribution, and turbulent kinetic energy was studied. Significant changes were observed when the operational parameters were examined under different ranges of conditions, indicating the extreme importance of determining the optimum conditions where the process is perfectly performed, which shall be an objective for future work.