CFD Modeling of the Feed Distribution System of a Gas-Solid Reactor

Granular flow simulation using CFD has received a lot of attention in recent years. In such cases, CFD is either, coupled with Discrete Element Method (DEM) techniques for appropriate incorporation of inter-particle collisions, or the Eulerian CFD approach is used in which granular particles are treated as they were fluid. In the present study, a CFD analysis was performed for granular flow in an industrial screw feeder to study the choking phenomena. Eulerian multiphase flow model, also known as two-fluid model in the case of two phases, was used along with the solids closures based on Kinetic Theory of Granular Flow (KTGF). The rotating effect of the half pitch screw was incorporated by using the immersed boundary method (IMB). Variation of mass flow through change in revolution per minute (RPM) and moisture content was studied in this work. A jump condition in the axial profiles of both the solid phase volume fraction and pressure was observed near the inlet. It was found that the jump condition in solid phase volume fraction and pressure profiles reduces by increase in the RPM of the screw.