Hydrodynamic modelling of dense gas-fluidised beds using the kinetic theory of granular flow: effect of coefficient of restitution on bed dynamics

A two-dimensional multi-fluid Eulerian CFD model with closure laws according to the kinetic theory of granular flow has been applied to study the influence of the coefficient of restitution on the hydrodynamics of dense gas-fluidised beds. It is demonstrated that hydrodynamics of dense gas-fluidised beds (i.e. gas bubbles behaviour) strongly depend on the amount of energy dissipated in particle-particle encounters. It is concluded that, in order to obtain realistic bed dynamics from fundamental hydrodynamic models, it is of prime importance to correctly take the effect of energy dissipation due to non-ideal particle-particle encounters into account. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.