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One important phenomenon in coal beneficiation fluidized bed (CBFB) is the accumulation of fine coal particles in beneficiation due to poor screening efficiency and attrition of coal samples. The effect of fine coal accumulation is numerically studied in this work using a TFM–DEM hybrid model. The gas phase and medium solid phase are modeled by a two-fluid model (TFM), while the fine coal particles are modeled by the discrete element method (DEM). Particles with a diameter of 0.9 mm are used as the fine coal sample in the simulation. The gas–solid flow pattern and particle dynamics are investigated with different concentrations of fine coal particles accumulated in the bed. For model validation purpose, the mean bed density distributions are compared with the experimental reports from He et al. (2013). The results show that a critical particle concentration exists in the fine coal accumulation process in CBFB. When the fine coal particles are less than 11 wt% in the bed, the flow pattern of medium phase is little affected and the coal particles are well mixed in the bed. However, when the particle concentration exceeds this threshold, the uniformity of bed density distribution is destroyed and particle stratification occurs along the bed height according to their density difference. Flow dynamics of the dense bed and main forces acting on the fine coal particles are analyzed to explain the underlying mechanism. With a large number of particles accumulated in the bed, the mixing effect of medium flow is suppressed. Motion of the fine coal particles is less dependent on the bed disturbance, instead, the particle gravity plays a decisive role in the particle distribution and results in the particle segregation in the fine coal accumulation process.

The Computational Particle Fluid Dynamics (CPFD) numerical method was used to study the gas solid flow characteristics in a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) with a loop seal in this work. The influences of operating parameters, including loop seal aeration rate (Ql), fluidized air velocity in the riser (Ur) and total bed inventory (Mp) on the solid circulation characteristics were mainly investigated in this part. The solid circulating rate (Gs), total pressure drop in the riser (ΔPr), particle packed height (Hs), pressure gradient (ΔPs/Hs) and gas flow rate (Gg) in the standpipe, as well as the particle concentration and pressure distributions in the loop were carefully analyzed under different operating conditions. The simulation results were compared with the experimental results also reported in this work and good agreements were obtained. The results showed that the increase of Ql resulted in a decrease of Hs and increases of Gs, ΔPr and ΔPs/Hs. By increasing Ur, the increase of Gs was limited and the maximum value was approaching. An increase of Mp also had a positive effect on Gs while an elevated Hs was obtained as a result of mass and pressure balance. No gas bypass flow phenomenon occurred in the operating cases of this work from the simulation results. The pressure drop in the riser could be properly predicted while the gas–solid interactions in the standpipe and loop seal were slightly underestimated by the CPFD method, where a relatively lower ΔPs/Hs was obtained for CFB modeling.

The Computational Particle Fluid Dynamics (CPFD) method was applied in the simulation of the gas solid flow in a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) with a loop seal in this work, and the modeling parameters were mainly investigated in this part. The influences of some crucial modeling parameters in CPFD simulation, such as mesh size, particle close pack volume fraction, interphase drag model and particle size distribution (PSD) on the flow behaviors in the whole loop of CFB were carefully analyzed with the help of experimental data conducted on the same CFB test rig. A medium mesh size was proved to be appropriate and used for the CFB modeling in this work. The particle close pack volume fraction largely affected the particle packed condition in the dense loop seal and standpipe. A value of 0.58 was proved to be suitable to describe the particle circulation and pressure distribution characteristics. Different gas–solid drag models showed certain influence on the particle circulation behaviors, and the combination of Wen-Yu and standard Ergun model was determined as the optimum choice. The consideration of the real PSD in CPFD scheme would better predict the overall flow characteristics for CFB system than the mono-size simplifications. The determination of modeling parameters in this work provides the base for simulating the gas–solid flow in the whole loop of CFB reactors by CPFD method, especially for the dense flow behavior in the standpipe and loop seal.