Application of analytical and CFD models of liquid fuels combustion in a fluidized bed

Abstract

In Laboratory for Thermal Engineering and Energy of Institute Vinca, University of Belgrade, a 2-D CFD modeling procedure of numerical simulation of unconventional liquid fuel combustion in bubbling fluidized bed has been developed. This procedure is based on a two-fluid Euler-Euler approach modeling a fluidized bed with the determination of the velocities field of gas and particulates in two-phase, granular flows, analog to the kinetic theory of gases. This model describes in detail the unsteady motion of gas and solid phases, the formation and movement of bubbles with the combustion process in the fluidized bed, but temperature profiles calculated by the bed height differ to some extent from the experimentally obtained profiles. This discrepancy is probably due to the inability of a two-fluid CFD model to give a realistic simulation of the liquid fuel mixing in a fluidized bed. Therefore, an analytical model has been developed, where one of the basic assumptions is that the particles are mixed in the vertical direction of fluidized bed mainly by the bubble wakes. The proposed zonal type of calculating procedure is based on Davidson and Harrison two-phase model of the bubbling fluidized bed, where fluidized bed is divided into zones within which material and energy balances are set.