Numerical simulation of gas-solid flow in a novel spouted bed: Influence of row number of longitudinal vortex generators

The flow characteristics in a novel cylindrical spouted bed with spherical longitudinal vortex generators is numerically investigated by two-fluid model (TFM) with kinetic theory for granular flow, the longitudinal vortex technology is adopted in the spouted bed so as to strengthen the particles radial mixing between spout and annulus zones, the row number effect (1–3 rows) of longitudinal vortex generators (LVGs) on gas–solid flow behavior in three dimensional spouted beds was numerically simulated. The CFD results show that, longitudinal vortices can effectively increase particle volume fraction near annulus zone in the spouted bed, the maximum increase of particle volume fraction near annulus region is 183％ and the pressure drop in spouted beds increases with increasing of LVGs’ row number. There exists an optimal row number (equal 2) of LVGs, at witch the radial velocity of particle phase reaches maximum in the limited spouted bed space, the value of turbulent kinetic energy of gas phase in spouted bed can be significantly promoted by longitudinal vortex, espeically in the spout zone and near the annulus region. Also, the enhancement effect of multi-row LVGs on turbulent kinetic energy of gas phase decreases when the cross section height of spouted beds increases.