Calculation of particle-wall adhesion in horizontal gas-solids flow using CFD

The horizontal pneumatic conveying of fine particles is simulated with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) including the particle-wall adhesion. The simulation is performed with FLUENT, whereby the dispersed phase (quartz powder, dP,50=3 μm) is described with the Lagrange approach. The continuous phase is resolved with the Realizable k-ɛ model. Models not provided by FLUENT are implemented via user defined functions. A horizontal pipe with a length of 3 m and an inner diameter of 50 mm is used for the calculation. The influence of different wall treatments on pressure drop and particle-wall adhesion is shown. Furthermore, several parameters are varied (e.g., electrostatic charge of particles, air velocity). The results are evaluated with measured data.