Numerical Simulation Of Gas -Liquid -Solid Three-Phase Flow With The Construction Of Theoretical Continuous Elements

We introduce the concept of theoretical continuous element (TCE) to the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) framework of gas-liquid-solid (GLS) systems, which results in a drag model that can cover both the binary and ternary drag interaction. We test the TCE method with a cylindrical stirred reactor and a cuboid GLS three-phase fluidized bed. For the former, we find that adopting TCE drag model improves the radial concentration profiles of the gas and solid phases, especially for the small r region. For the latter, we perform 3-dimensional simulations on the rising procedure of an injected bubble, extract the projected bubble area and obtain good agreement with experiments. The simulation results further show the formation of stable vortices and airways. Moreover, we find that inside the bubble, the liquid phase follows the motion of the gas phase, while outside the bubble, the liquid phase moves synchronously with respect to the solid phase.