Design optimization of a fluidized bed with a novel air chamber using the CFD-Taguchi method

Abstract

The gas–solid fluidized bed is the key structure of industrial fluidization, and it is widely used in fields such as chemical reactors and industrial material conveying. To study the uniformity of velocity distribution ( Vu) in a fluidized bed and clarify the interaction mechanism between the geometric structure of the air chamber and the gas flow, in this paper, 16 novel chamber structures for powder unloading were designed based on the Taguchi method. Computational fluid dynamics was used to simulate the different chamber schemes, and the effects of various geometric factors on the response were analyzed based on the Taguchi method. The effect of the novel optimization model for powder unloading was verified by tests. The results show that the optimal combination of geometrical parameters is air chamber capacity ( V) at level 4, separation ratio ( K) at level 1 and clearance of splitter plate ( δ) at level 1, and δ has the greatest effect on the Vu1 and Vu2 in the fluidized bed. With the increase in δ and K, the velocity of the airflow away from the inlet side increases, and the area of the vortex near the splitter plate increases. Compared with the baseline model, the fluidized bed with the novel air chamber can effectively reduce the residual rate of powder unloading.