Prediction of Particle Dynamics in Bubbling Fluidized Beds with Inertial Number-Based Drag and Solid Stress Models

Gas–solid fluidized bed reactors are widely used in industry. Since two-phase flows in fluidized beds often coexist with multiple flow states, the interaction mechanism between the phases is complex, and accurate simulation has always been a challenge. In this paper, the inertia number is used as a measure of the transition of the drag model and the solid stress model from the inertial region (low particle concentration) to the quasi-static region (high particle concentration) to achieve the dynamic transition of different interphase interaction mechanisms. Through the simulation of the fluidization process of Geldart D particles, it is found that the drag and solid stress models based on the inertia number can more accurately describe the particle flow behavior in the 3D fluidized bed than the two-fluid model combined with traditional kinetic theory of granular flow and achieve a prediction accuracy close to CFD-DEM by presenting a nearly realistic bubble formation process. This provides a more computationally resource-efficient and effective tool for accurately modeling gas–solid two-phase flows at the reactor scale.