A Numerical Study of Heat Transfer Mechanisms in Gas–Solids Flows Through Pipes Using a Coupled CFD and DEM Model

Abstract

A two dimensional numerical model has been developed to simulate heat transfer in gas–solids flows through pipes, in which the gas phase is modelled as a continuum using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach and the solids phase is modelled by the Discrete Element Method (DEM). This allows interactions between gas, particles, and pipe wall to be accounted at the scale of individual particles and convective and conductive heat transfers to be calculated using local gas and solids parameters. The predicted changes to the flow structures and the various heat transfer mechanisms due to the presence of particles were analyzed and compared with other workers' findings. This study has quantitatively demonstrated the crucial effect of particle transverse motion on heat transfers due firstly to the thermal energy transport by rebounding particles and secondly to the modification of the fluid thermal boundary layer characteristics.

Keywords:

• Particulate flow
• Particles
• Pneumatic drying
• Modelling
• Velocity profile
• Thermal structure