A comparative study of different CFD-codes for numerical simulation of gas–solid fluidized bed hydrodynamics

The hydrodynamics of a gas–solid fluidized bed reactor were studied numerically. Computational two-dimensional results from open source software packages MFIX and OpenFOAM, and those obtained from the commercial software package Fluent were discussed and compared with numerical and experimental data existing in the literature. The gas–solid flow was simulated applying the multifluid Eulerian–Eulerian model, where the solid phase is treated as a continuum. The solid-phase properties were calculated by using the kinetic theory of granular flow. Momentum exchange coefficients were calculated using the Gidaspow and Syamlal–O’Brien drag functions. Pressure drop and bed expansion ratio predicted by the simulations were in relatively close agreement with benchmark numerical and experimental data sets in the bubbling regime. Contrary to the OpenFOAM predictions, computations with MFIX and Fluent predicted instantaneous and time-average local voidage and velocity profiles which are comparable with results from the literature.

► Hydrodynamics of a two-dimensional gas–solid fluidized bed reactor.
► Comparative study of different CFD-codes for the numerical simulations of fluidization processes.
► Study of global values, like pressure drop and bed expansion ratio, and analysis of instantaneous and statistically averaged fields.
► Simulations with FLUENT and MFIX are in very good agreement among each other.
► OpenFOAM's global values agree quite good with the results of the other codes, but a more precise fields investigation shows that the code needs further improvements.