Modeling and Simulation of a lab-scale Fluidised Bed

The flow behaviour of a lab-scale fluidised bed with a central jet has been simulated. The study has been performed with an in-house computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model named FLOTRACS-MP-3D. The CFD model is based on a multi-fluid Eulerian description of the phases, where the kinetic theory for granular flow forms the basis for turbulence modelling of the solid phases. A two-dimensional Cartesian co-ordinate system is used to describe the geometry. This paper discusses whether bubble formation and bed height are influenced by coefficient of restitution, drag model and number of solid phases. Measurements of the same fluidised bed with a digital video camera are performed. Computational results are compared with the experimental results, and the discrepancies are discussed.