CFD modeling of hydrodynamic and heat transfer in fluidized bed reactors

In this study, a gas–solid fluidized bed reactor has been simulated applying CFD techniques in order to investigate hydrodynamic and heat transfer phenomena. Reactor model predictions were compared with corresponding experimental data reported in the literature to validate the model. The results indicate that considering two solid phases, particles with smaller diameters have lower volume fraction at the bottom of the bed and higher volume fraction at the top of the bed. In addition, it was revealed that bed expansion was larger when a bimodal particle mixture was applied compared with the case of mono-dispersed particles. Gas and solid phase temperature distributions in the reactor were also computed, considering the hydrodynamic of the fluidized bed and the heat generated by the solid particles. The results showed that gas temperature increases as it moves upward in the reactor due to the heat of polymerization reaction leading to the higher temperatures at the top of the bed.