Computational and Experimental Study of the Patterns of Formation of a Fluidized Bed of Inert Haydite Particles Material

At present, an actual trend in the development of fuel and energy complexes in a number of countries is the diversification of generation via the involvement of local types of solid fuel. In this case, thermochemical processing of fuel is often carried out in a fluidized state. A significant proportion of dispersed fuels cannot be transferred to a state of stable fluidization. The solution in such cases is to create a fluidized bed of inert carrier, into which particles of the target fuel component are then introduced. In this work, a computational and experimental study of the fluidization of inert bulk material (haydite granules) was carried out. The key purpose of the work was to develop a mathematical model for the formation of a fluidized bed, which makes it possible to calculate the process based on its local characteristics, as well as to identify the model parameters and test it using experiment data. During the study the problems of developing a numerical method for calculating the distribution of velocities and concentrations along the height of the apparatus were solved, parametric identification of the proposed mathematical model was carried out, and empirical verification of the modeling results was carried out. The mathematical apparatus of the theory of Markov chains was used as the mathematical basis for constructing the model. The data from our own laboratory full-scale experiment were used to identify the parameters of the model and verify it. A comparison of calculated and experimental data showed the high predictive efficiency of the model for the given granulometric composition of the fluidizing product. The results of the laboratory full-scale experiments also showed a significant evolution of the granulometric composition of haydite granules during their long-term stay in a fluidized bed, which requires a separate study, as well as the introduction of appropriate amendments to the mathematical model for its further improvement.