CFD Simulation of Air-water in a Spouted Bed

Abstract

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is employed to simulate the air-water system in a spouted column with a draft tube. Numerical results of Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations using the k-s and k-w two-equation turbulence models are compared with Pironti at al. (1995) experimental data. CFD predictions of the k-s and k-w turbulence models are in good agreement with the reported experimental data. The interfacial momentum transfer in modeling air-water system in the spouted bed indicated the importance of using turbulent dispersion force besides the most often used drag and lift forces to better predict flow behavior and air hold-up. Ishii-Zuber liquid-gas drag model with the lift and turbulent dispersion forces yields very good results; it correctly determines a hold up within 1% when used along with the k-s turbulence model, while it under-predicts the hold-up by 4.08% when used with the k-co model.