A novel multigrid technique for Lagrangian modeling of fuel mixing in fluidized beds

This paper presents a novel Lagrangian approach to model fuel mixing in gas-solid fluidized beds. In the mixing process, fuel particles are considerably larger than the inert bed material and therefore, the present work proposes three grids to account for the difference in size between the fuel particles and inert solids. The information between the grids is exchanged using an algorithm presented in the paper. A statistical method has been developed to analyze the distribution of the fuel particles in the bed. The results for the preferential positions, velocity vectors and horizontal dispersion coefficients are compared with experimental data in a bed applying simplified scaling relationships for different operating conditions. The effects of initial bed height and inlet gas velocity on the fuel mixing are investigated. It is found that the proposed Lagrangian modeling can capture the complex pattern of the movement of the fuel particles, in spite of the large difference in diameter between inert and fuel particles. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.