Fluidized Bed Reactor with Reaction CFD Simulation Training

Description

Description

This simulation is about a fluidized bed polymerization reactor via ANSYS Fluent software. We perform this CFD project and investigate it by CFD analysis. A reactor is a device for performing chemical reactions (conversion, composition, decomposition, etc.) using catalysts and, as a result, the conversion of raw materials into desired products.

The fluidized bed-type reactor has advantages such as a high heat transfer rate and high mass transfer rate, lower heat transfer surface, uniform temperature distribution, proper temperature control, and complete and rapid mixing of reactors and catalysts.

Based on our previous project we have validated the results of a fluidized bed reactor with the numerical investigation, now we have investigated full reactions inside our reactor and the results have compared to the model without reaction

The gas flow enters vertically and upwards at a speed of 0.3 m/s, while no solid particles enter the reactor. The present study investigates the behavior of suspended solid particles in the gas flow over time and the pressure drop generated from the reactor inlet to the outlet.

The geometry of the present model is drawn by Design Modeler software. The model is then meshed by ANSYS Meshing software. The model mesh is unstructured, and 938174 cells have been created.

Fluidized Bed Method

Since the performance of reactors is inherently based on the mixing of flows and particles as reactants and catalysts in the chemical reaction process, a multi-phase model has been used to define the fluid flow within the model.

Also, considering the present model is related to simulating the suspension of solid particles within a fluid flow like a fluidized bed model, choosing the Eulerian multi-phase flow model is the most appropriate option.

Therefore, the model includes a gas flow defined as the primary phase and suspended solids defined as the secondary phase. The present model is unsteady; because the model’s nature is such, the behavior of the particles in the model changes over time. The simulation process was performed for 4 s with a time step of 0.001 s. for the reactions we have species transport which reacts with the eulerian phase.

Fluidized Bed Conclusion

After simulation, two-dimensional contours related to the mixture pressure, gas flow velocity and suspended solids, and volume fraction of the gas flow and solid suspended particles from zero to one second are obtained.

Because of our previous simulation now our focus is on the reactions, the temperature rise due to the reactions is visible and by monitoring the species generated due to the reactions, you can see the cycle of the reactions and species present in the domain in the limited time.