Comparing ANSYS Fluent® and OpenFOAM® simulations of Geldart A, B and D bubbling fluidized bed hydrodynamics
International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow
ISSN: 0961-5539
Article publication date: 25 September 2019
Issue publication date: 15 January 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to assess the performance of ANSYS Fluent® and OpenFOAM®, at their current state of development, to study the relevant bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) characteristics with Geldart A, B and D particles.
Design/methodology/approach
For typical Geldart B and D particles, both a three-dimensional cylindrical and a pseudo-two-dimensional arrangement were used to measure the bed pressure drop and solids volume fraction, the latter by digital image analysis techniques. For a typical Geldart A particle, specifically to examine bubbling and slugging phenomena, a 2 m high three-dimensional cylindrical arrangement of small internal diameter was used. The hydrodynamics of the experimentally investigated BFB cases were also simulated for identical geometries and operating conditions using OpenFOAM® v6.0 and ANSYS Fluent® v19.2 at identical mesh and numerical setups.
Findings
The comparison between experimental and simulated results showed that both ANSYS Fluent® and OpenFOAM® provide a fair qualitative prediction of the bubble sizes and solids fraction for freely-bubbling Geldart B and D particles. For Geldart A particles, operated in a slugging mode, the qualitative predictions are again quite fair, but numerical values of relevant slug characteristics (length, velocity and frequency) slightly favor the use of OpenFOAM®, despite some deviations of predicted slug velocities.
Originality/value
A useful comparison of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software performance for different fluidized regimes is presented. The results are discussed and recommendations are formulated for the selection of the CFD software and models involved.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the ANPCyT (Argentina), PICT Projects 2014-2078 and 2016-2908 and CONICET. It was also part of research projects supported by the universities of Comahue, Rosario and Litoral. A. Reyes Urrutia and C. M. Venier are Postdoctoral Fellows of CONICET (Argentina). G. Mazza is research member of CONICET (Argentina). J. Baeyens acknowledges funding from the Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter and Engineering. Lic. Lucas Cavaliere (PROBIEN, CONICET-UNCo) is acknowledged for his technical assistance in the use of large-scale high-performance computing.
Both, first and second authors (Cesar M. Venier and Andrés Reyes Urrutia) contributed equaly to this work.
Citation
Venier, C.M., Reyes Urrutia, A., Capossio, J.P., Baeyens, J. and Mazza, G. (2020), "Comparing ANSYS Fluent® and OpenFOAM® simulations of Geldart A, B and D bubbling fluidized bed hydrodynamics", International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 93-118. https://doi.org/10.1108/HFF-04-2019-0298
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited