Quantification of Solid Mixing in Bubbling Fluidized Beds via Two-Fluid Model Simulations

The influence of particle density and fluidization velocity on the mixing behavior of Geldart B particles was investigated in bubbling fluidized beds for various operating conditions using a two-fluid model approach. The simulation results proved that the predicted solid flow pattern for a wide range of Geldart B particles differs from particles of Geldart B/D classification at identical fluidization numbers. Quantitative analysis of the predicted solid velocity variances revealed that the solid axial dispersion rate is higher than the lateral one. In detail, a Peclet number of 1.54 and 3.92 was predicted for axial and lateral mixings, respectively. Also, the solid dispersion and diffusion coefficients were linearly correlated with the excess gas velocity for a range of particle properties. Finally, the characteristic global particle mixing times were computed. Thereby, the characteristic mixing time can be correlated with the particle Froude number, expanded bed height, and solid dispersion coefficient with high accuracy.