One-dimensional numerical simulation of CFB combustion: Improvement of hydrodynamic models for accurate prediction of pressure and particle size distributions

Journal article, 2023

This study aims to improve the accuracy of one-dimensional numerical simulations of circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boilers by evaluating models related to solid properties, such as attrition, fragmentation, cyclone efficiency, and bed material discharge. The study validates models for estimating solids holdup and particle size distribution (PSD) using experimental results from a 12 MWth CFB boiler. The study found that accurate prediction of solid axial holdup and local PSD requires proper consideration of attrition and fragmentation, and the simulation results show that attrition has a more significant effect on numerical analysis performance than fragmentation. By using appropriate values for sand attrition constant (5E-7), char attrition constant (6E-6), and coal:1.5, sand:1.2, and char(ash):1.2 fragmentation constants, the pressure distribution measured from experiments was best predicted. The simulation successfully predicted the particle PSD distribution at a specific location in the CFB boiler and pressure change by height, similar to the experimental results In addition, this study investigated the accuracy of 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations using solid properties obtained through 1D simulation as initial conditions compared to those based on experimental conditions. The results revealed that 3D CFD simulations using the solid properties from 1D numerical analysis are more accurate, implying that 1D-3D co-simulation approach is a good strategy to increase the simulation performance.