Evaluation of the effect of cone geometry on spouted bed fluid dynamics by CFD-DEM simulation

Abstract

The spouted bed provides efficient gas-solid contact, favoring heat and mass transfer. Thus, it has been applied to various physical and chemical processes. In this work, the effects of six cone angles (28°, 30°, 45°, 60°, 75°, and 90°) on the fluid dynamics of a spouted bed with sorghum grains were analyzed by CFD-DEM. Based on fluid dynamics principles, the objective was to identify better configurations for the drying process performance. Smaller cone angles provided better solids circulation, with a higher mass transfer coefficient (k_c), granular temperature (gt), and solids mass flow rate (W_s), together with a shorter cycle time (t_c). For the range of cone angles analyzed, increase of the cone angle reduced W_s by about 75% and increased t_c 4-fold.

Keywords:

• Cone angle
• discrete element method
• mass transfer coefficient
• granular temperature
• sorghum grains

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by CNPq – Brazil under Grant [140760/2017-2]; Capes – Brazil under Grant [001]. Authors appreciate the financial support from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - Brasil (CNPq).