Refereed Proceedings

The 12th International Conference on

Fluidization - New Horizons in Fluidization
Engineering
Engineering Conferences International Year 2007

Understanding the Hydrodynamics in a

2-Dimensional Downer by CFD-DEM
Simulation
Yongzhi Zhao∗ Yi Cheng†
Yulong Ding‡ Yong Jin∗∗

∗ Tsinghua University
† Tsinghua University, yicheng@tsinghua.edu.cn
‡
∗∗ Tsinghua University
This paper is posted at ECI Digital Archives.
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 FLUIDIZATION XII 855

Zhao et al.: CFD-DEM Simulations of a Downer

UNDERSTANDING THE HYDRODYNAMICS IN A

2-DIMENSIONAL DOWNER BY CFD-DEM SIMULATION

Y.Z. Zhao, Y. Cheng*, Y.L. Ding, Y. Jin

Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
*F: 86-10-6277-2051; E: yicheng@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn

ABSTRACT

The gas-solid flows in a 2-dimensional downer were simulated using a CFD-DEM

method. The predicted macro-scale flow structure had good agreement with the
experiments. The distinct clustering phenomena at meso-scale were revealed
throughout the downer. Influences of the collision properties of the wall and the
particles on the hydrodynamics in downer were investigated.

INTRODUCTION

Downer has drawn much attention in both academia and industry for its unique
features such as a uniform flow structure and a plug-flow behavior for gas and solids
phases, which indicates a great potential as the next-generation reactor technique
for ultra-short contact processes. A wealth of experimental studies on the downer
has been reported in the literature, while few papers were published on CFD
modeling and simulations. In particular, a comprehensive understanding on the
clustering phenomena in the downer has not been reached using a theoretical
method. Cheng et al. (1) have applied an Eulerian-Eulerian model to simulate the
hydrodynamics in the downer. However, Eulerian model cannot describe the detailed
interaction between phases and between particles at micro-scale. In recent years,
Eulerian-Lagrangian model, the so-called CFD-DEM method pioneered by Tsuji et al.
(2), has been widely applied in the simulation of gas-solid flows, where the particles
are traced individually by solving Newton’s equations of motion, while the gas phase
is treated as a continuum that is coupled to the motion of particles via an interphase
interaction term. The advantage of the CFD-DEM simulation is that the
micro-dynamic behavior of granular materials at the individual particle level can be
modeled with clear physical meaning.

In this work, the CFD-DEM coupling method is used to study the hydrodynamics in a
2-dimensional downer
Published by ECI Digital with
Archives, the width of 10 cm and the height of 10 m to ensure the
2007 1
856 ZHAO et al.

two-phase
The 12th flow reaching
International fully
Conference developed.
on Fluidization The DEM
- New Horizons code Engineering,
in Fluidization has been Art. successfully
105 [2007]
incorporated with the commercial CFD package of FLUENT 6.1. The macro-scale
flow structure and the meso-scale clustering phenomena are disclosed by the
simulation results. Influences of the properties of the wall and the particles on the
hydrodynamics in downer are to be discussed.

MATHEMATICAL MODEL

The particle movement is described by the Newton equation of motion which

includes the effects of gravitational force, contact force, fluid drag force, and buoyant
force. The equations of transitional and rotational motions can be written as
dV
m = mg + Fc + Fd + Fb (1)
dt
dω
I = Tc (2)
dt

The motion of fluid is modeled by the equation of continuity and the equation of
momentum conservation, which are given by

∂ ∂ (ε u j )
ε+ =0 (3)
∂t ∂x j

∂ ( ε ui ) ∂ ( ε ui u j ) ∂p ∂   ∂u ∂u j  
ρf + ρf =− + εµ f  i +   + Fs (4)
∂t ∂x j ∂xi ∂x j   ∂x j ∂xi  

Di Felice drag model (3) is used to

Table 1 Simulation parameters
characterize the gas-solid interaction.
Gas properties
The details about the contact force
Density/kg·m-3 1.225
models, coupling between discrete and -2
Viscosity/N·s·m 1.72×10-5
continuum models, and numerical
Particle properties
schemes can be found elsewhere
Shape Spherical
(Zhao et al. (4)).
Diameter/mm 0.5
Density/kg·m-3 950
The simulation parameters are given in
Simulation parameters
Table 1. A total of three cases are
Number of particles About 70,000
simulated to explore the influence of
DEM time step/s 5×10-6
the collision properties between
Total simulation time/s 5
particles and the wall. Case 1 is the -1
Gas inlet velocity/m·s 4.0
reference case with more realistic -2 -1
Solids flux/kg·m ·s 50
particle properties. The detailed
Width/m ×Height/m 0.1×10
differences with the other two cases
http://dc.engconfintl.org/fluidization_xii/105 2
CFD Mesh 20(W)×500(H)
 FLUIDIZATION XII 857

are shown in Table 2. Case 2 and

Zhao Case 3 Simulations
et al.: CFD-DEM are usedofto study the influence of wall and
a Downer
particles properties respectively.

Table 2 Simulation parameters of three cases

Parameters Case 1 Case 2 Case 3

Particle-particle collisions
Normal coefficient of restitution 0.95 0.95 1.0
Coefficient of sliding friction 0.1 0.1 0.0
Particle-wall collisions
Normal coefficient of restitution 0.95 0.9 1.0
Coefficient of sliding friction 0.1 0.3 0.0

In the continuum model, the no-slip boundary condition applies to the bed walls and
zero diffusion flux condition to the bottom exit. At the top of the bed, the gas and the
particles are introduced. The assistant gas (u = 1 m/s) carrying particles (Gs = 50
kg/m2s) falls through 5 tubes, and the main gas (u = 7 m/s) flows into the bed through
the space between the tubes.

Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Case 1

Fig. 1 Snapshots of flow 0-1m 1-2m 2-3m 3-4m 4-5m 5-6m 6-7m 7-8m 8-9m 9-10m
patterns (t = 2.5 s) Fig. 2 Snapshots of Case 1 at simulation time t = 2.5 s

RESULTS AND
Published by ECI DISCUSSION
Digital Archives, 2007 3
858 ZHAO et al.

A totalThe
of12th
5 sInternational
simulation was performed
Conference on Fluidization for
- Neweach of inthe
Horizons three cases.
Fluidization The
Engineering, Art.particles
105 [2007] are
introduced from the tube inlet at the top of the bed, and then move downward. After
about 2.0 seconds, the particles run out of the downer and the gas-solid flow
becomes to be steady. Fig. 1 shows the snapshots of flow patterns of three cases at
simulation time t = 2.5 s. It can be seen that many clusters exist in the reactors, and
the number of clusters and their sizes vary along the downer. The cluster size
increases observably as the increase of the bed length, which agrees well with the
investigations by Lu et al. (5). Some researchers (e.g. Krol et al., (6); Lu et al., (5))
also observed particle clusters in downer by different measuring techniques.
However, the temporal-spatial dynamics inside the bed cannot be obtained due to
the limitation in experiments. Fig. 2 provides a more detailed distribution of solid
particles in the downer. In the section 0-3 m of the bed, the particles are dispersed
uniformly and no cluster exists. In the section 3-4 m clusters start forming, and in the
section 4-6 m the size and the number of clusters all increases along the bed. In the
rest section 6-10 m, the size of clusters still increases, but the number of clusters is
obviously reduced. The variation of the number of clusters along the bed also agrees
with the experiments (Lu et al., (5)). The shapes of clusters are anomalous and often
in the form of floc structure with loosely collected particles. At the lower section of the
downer, the occurrence probability of clusters near the bed wall is higher than that in
the bed center, and the size of clusters near the wall is also larger than that in the
center.

(a) 1.8-2.0m (b) 3.8-4.0m (c) 5.8-6.0m (d) 7.8-8.0m (e) 9.8-10.0m
Fig. 3 Snapshots of the local gas velocity and particle structure in different parts of
the downer (Case 1) at simulation time t = 2.5 s

Fig. 3 shows the snapshots of the local gas velocity and particle structure in different
parts of the downer (Case 1) at simulation time t = 2.5 s. It can be seen that the flow
structures of gas and particles are different at different positions. At the higher part of
the bed, shown in Fig. 3(a), the flow of gas is generally uniform and particles are
dispersed uniformly too. At the middle section shown in Figs. 3(b) and (c), particle
http://dc.engconfintl.org/fluidization_xii/105
cluster appears and the flow structure of the gas changes to be non-uniform. The 4
 FLUIDIZATION XII 859

reason is that the velocity Zhao

difference between
et al.: CFD-DEM particles
Simulations and gas increases gradually
of a Downer
along the bed caused by gravity. The large velocity difference makes gas-solid flow
unbalanced. Particles turn to moving together to be clusters and the flow of the gas
is disturbed by the particle clusters. Further downwards, the particles move faster in
the lower part of the downer. The size of clusters increases and the gas flow is
influenced by the existence of
clusters to a greater extent, shown
in Figs. 3(d) and (e). The gas Case 1 Case 3 Case 1 Case 3
velocity is larger near the cluster
due to the larger drag forces
between phases. As the cluster
size increases to its limit, the
inter-collisions between particles
and the drag forces from the gas
make clusters breaking-up.

Fig. 4 shows the influence of the

particle properties on the
clustering phenomenon. It can be
seen that the ideal particles used
in Case 3 disperse much faster
near the entrance because of the (a) Near the entrance (b) Near the outlet
fully elastic collisions between Fig. 4 Influence of the particle properties on
particles. And the clusters are the clustering phenomenon at t = 2.5 s
more loosely packed by the ideal
particles.

Lateral profiles of the solids fraction at 10 different axial positions for the three cases
are shown in Fig. 5. The averaging period is from 2.5s to 5.0s. The distributor
affected region below the entrance of the bed can be clearly seen. At the location H =
1.5 m, the lateral solid fraction profiles of all cases change to be very flat, indicating
the weakened influence of distributor on the hydrodynamics. However, as particles
move downwards, clusters start forming and the particles begin to move towards the
wall. At the location H = 4.5 m, the lateral solid fraction profiles become non-uniform.
A dense ring occurs near the wall. The results agree well with the observations made
by many investigators (e.g. Bai et al., (7); Lehner and Wirth, (8)).

Fig. 6 shows the axial profiles of solids fraction, gas and particle velocities for three
cases. It can be seen that the cross-sectional averaged solids fraction profile firstly
decreases rapidly in the higher region (0~2 m) of the bed, then decreases slowly and
finally being
Published by ECIconstant. The
Digital Archives, 2007gas velocity changes little along the downer, while the
5
860 ZHAO et al.

particles experience
The 12th clear acceleration
International Conference on Fluidization - Newprocess
Horizons in due to the
Fluidization dragArt.force
Engineering, at the
105 [2007]
beginning and the gravity force all along. The simulation results agree well with the
experimental results (e.g. Zhang et al., (9); Zhang et al., (10)). In order to validate if
the flow reaches the fully developed state, the standard deviation (SD) of particle
velocity indicating the lateral variation of the local velocities is studied. At H = 0 m the
SD values are very high, which shows the strong effect by the distributor design
below the entrance. Then, the SD values decrease rapidly. Since the clusters start
forming and the flow becomes non-uniform in the middle region (2~8 m), the SD
increases almost linearly. In the lower region (8~10 m), the SD profiles change to be
flat.

0.020
0.015

H=0.5 m 0.010
0.005
0.000
0.015
0.010
H=1.5 m
0.005
0.000
0.015
0.010
H=2.5 m
0.005
0.000
0.015
0.010
H=3.5 m
0.005
0.000
0.015
Solids fraction

0.010
H=4.5 m
0.005
0.000
0.015
0.010
H=5.5 m
0.005
0.000
0.015
0.010
H=6.5 m
0.005
0.000
0.015
0.010
H=7.5 m
0.005
0.000
0.015
0.010
H=8.5 m
0.005
0.000
0.015
0.010
H=9.5 m
0.005
0.000
0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10 0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10 0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10

x/m
Fig. 5 Lateral profiles of solids fraction along the downer of three cases.

As shown above, the flow reaches the fully developed state in the lower region of the
downer. In order to get the more meaningful lateral profiles of solids fraction and
particle velocity corresponding to fully developed region, the space-time averaging of
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 FLUIDIZATION XII 861

solid fractions and particleZhao

velocities is carried
et al.: CFD-DEM outof in
Simulations the lower region (8~10 m) of
a Downer
downer. It can be seen from Fig. 7 that more particles appear near the wall so that a
dense ring of particles form, which accordingly result in higher particle velocities at
the corresponding place. The effect of the wall properties in downer is also shown in
Fig. 7. Under the simulation conditions, the change of wall properties (Case 2) has
little influence on the flow structure in downer. But the effect of particle properties on
the flow is greater (Case 3). The hydrodynamics in downer with particles of no
friction and no collision energy loss are more uniform.

0.03 0.020
Case 1 Case 1
Solids fraction

Case 2 Case 2
0.02 0.015
Case 3 Case 3

Solids fraction
0.01 0.010

0.005
-1

6.0
Standard deviation Velocity/m⋅s

Particle
4.0 0.000
Gas 6.8
2.0 -1
Particle velocity/m⋅s
6.4
0.9

0.6 6.0

0.3 5.6

0.0 5.2
0 2 4 6 8 10 0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10
H/m x/m
Fig. 6 Axial profiles of solids fraction, Fig. 7 Lateral profiles of solids fraction,
gas and particle velocities and particle velocity in fully developed region
standard deviation of particle velocity.

CONCLUSIONS

The CFD-DEM simulations revealed the distinct clustering phenomena in downer.

The clusters start to form in the transition region instead of the entrance region with
denser particle concentration. With the flow development, the clusters grow in size
and increase in number. Particles inside each cluster are loosely collected, flowing in
the same direction as the bulk flow. The lateral distribution of solids fraction in the
fully developed region is non-uniform, with a denser ring near the wall. The ideally
elastic particles with no friction during collisions disperse very rapidly and uniformly
at the entrance.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This research is financially supported by NSFC (No. 20306012), Chinese Ministry of

Education (FANEDD, No. 200245), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
(2005038061).
Published by ECI Digital Archives, 2007 7
862 ZHAO et al.

NOTATION
The 12th International Conference on Fluidization - New Horizons in Fluidization Engineering, Art. 105 [2007]

CFD computational fluid dynamics Tc contact Torque, N·m

DEM discrete element method u i, u j, u gas velocity, m/s
Fb buoyant force, N V particle velocity, m/s
Fc contact force, N x i, x j coordinates, m
Fd drag force, N
Fs source term due to fluid drag Greeks
force, N/m3 ε void fraction, dimensionless
g acceleration of gravity, m/s2 µf gas viscosity, kg/m·s
H distance from the downer ρf gas density, kg/m3
entrance, m ω particle angular velocity, rad/s
m Mass of particle, kg
p pressure, Pa Subscripts
t time, s f fluid phase

REFERENCES

1. Cheng, Y., Guo, Y., Wei, F., Jin, Y., Lin, W., 1999. Modeling the hydrodynamics of downer
reactors based on kinetic theory. Chemical Engineering Science, 54, 2019-2027.
2. Tsuji, Y., Kawaguchi, T., Tanaka, T., 1993. Discrete particle simulation of two-dimensional
fluidized bed. Powder Technology, 77, 79-87.
3. Di Felice, R., 1994. The voidage function for fluid-particle interaction systems.
International Journal of Multiphase Flow, 20, 153-159.
4. Zhao, Y., Cheng, Y., Jin, Y., 2007. CFD-DEM simulation of clustering phenomena in riser
and downer. Journal of Chemical Industry and Engineering (China), 58, (in press).
5. Lu, X., Li, S., Du, L., Yao, J., Lin, W., Li, H., 2005. Flow structures in the downer
circulation fluidized bed. Chemical Engineering Journal, 112, 23-31.
6. Krol, S., Pekediz, A., De Lasa, H., 2000. Particle clustering in down flow reactors.
Powder Technology, 108, 6-20.
7. Bai, D.R., Jin, Y., Yu, Z.Q., Gan, N.J., 1991. Radial profiles of local solid concentration
and velocity in a concurrent downflow fast fluidized bed. In: P. Basu, M. Horio, M.
Hasatani (Eds.), Circulating Fluidized Bed Technology III. Pergamon Press, Toronto, pp.
157-162.
8. Lehner, P., Wirth, K.E., 1999. Characterization of the flow pattern in a downer reactor.
Chemical Engineering Science, 54, 5471-5483.
9. Zhang, H., Zhu, J-X., 1999. Hydrodynamics in downflow fluidized beds: (1): solids
concentration profiles and pressure gradient distributions. Chemical Engineering Science,
54, 5461-5470.
10. Zhang, H., Zhu, J-X., 2000. Hydrodynamics in downflow fluidized beds: (2). Particle
velocity and solids flux profiles. Chemical Engineering Science, 55, 4367-4377.
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