A validation study for the hydrodynamics of biomass in a fluidized bed

Computational modeling of fluidized beds can be used to predict operation of biomass gasifiers after extensive validation with experimental data. The present work focused on computational simulations of a fluidized bed using a multifluid Eulerian-Eulerian model to represent the gas and solid phases as interpenetrating continua. Hydrodynamic results from the simulations were quantitatively compared with X-ray flow visualization studies of a similar bed. It was found that the Gidaspow model can accurately predict the hydrodynamics of the biomass in a fluidized bed. The coefficient of restitution of biomass was fairly high and did not affect the hydrodynamics of the bed; however, the model was more sensitive to particle sphericity variation.