Simulating Wet Gas-Solid Fluidized Beds Using Coarse-Grid CFD-DEM

Simulations of wet fluidized beds of particles in small periodic domains have been carried out using a CFD-DEM approach. A liquid bridge forms upon particle–particle collision, which then ruptures when the particle separation exceeds a critical distance. The simulations take into account only the surface tension force of attraction due to the liquid bridge. Increasing the strength of cohesion leads to larger agglomerates, and correspondingly, higher gas velocities are required to fully support the particles. The slip velocity results from the simulations have been correlated in terms of a Bond number characterizing the strength of cohesion, volume of liquid in the bridge, and particle volume fraction. The CFD-DEM results are systematically coarse-grained to expose the dependence of the filtered drag coefficient on Eulerian filter size, surface tension forces, liquid loading, and solids loading in wet gas–solid fluidized beds.