Iranian Journal of Chemical Engineering (IJChE)

Abstract In this study, an Eulerian-Eulerian multi-fluid model (MFM) was used to simulate the segregation pattern of a conical fluidized bed containing ternary mixtures of equidensity TiO2‌ particles. Experimental 'freeze–sieving' method was employed to determine the axial mass fraction profiles of the different-sized particles, and validate the simulation results. The profiles of mass fraction for large, medium and small sized particles along the bed height during the simulation time indicated that the particles’ segregation can be predicted by CFD model. Effect of superficial gas velocity on segregation pattern was also investigated. It was shown that for U0=1.2Umf, partial segregation of large particles occurred, while for U0=1.6Umf, small and medium size particles also segregated and full segregation was achieved. By increasing U0 to 2Umf, mixing of different sized particles was increased and particles segregation was reduced. Therefore, it can be concluded that there was a critical velocity below which particles would segregate while above which their mixing increased.

Abstract Abstract
The effect of the solid–wall boundary condition on the segregation behavior of a sand ternary mixture differing in size but having the same proportion has been investigated in a gas–solid bubbling fluidized bed. A multi-fluid computational fluid dynamics model incorporating the kinetic theory of granular flow has been used. The mass fraction profiles of the different-sized particles along the bed height have been experimentally measured by 'freeze–sieving' method. The simulation results of mass fraction distribution and segregation index have been compared against our experimental data in order to evaluate solid–wall boundary conditions in terms of specularity and particle-wall restitution coefficients. The analysis indicates that, the specularity coefficients in range 0.5 to 0.9 lead to the satisfactory results and the best agreement is obtained for =0.9 which corresponds to partial–slip wall boundary condition while the particle–wall restitution coefficient has only a negligible effect on the results. Also maximum segregation index occurs at specularity coefficient of 0.9 at which the segregation pattern may be affected by simultaneous mechanisms of particles circulation and bubbles rising. The effects of superficial gas velocity on the segregation behavior in bubbling regime have also been studied and a significant reduction in segregation index has been observed with increasing gas velocity from 1.1Umf to 1.3Umf.