Numerical simulation of horizontal jet penetration in a three-dimensional fluidized bed

The introduction of reactant gas as a jet into a fluidized bed chemical reactor is often encountered in various industrial applications. Understanding the hydrodynamics of the gas and solid flow resulting from the gas jet can have considerable significance in improving the reactor design and process optimization. In this work, a three-dimensional numerical simulation of a single horizontal gas jet into a cylindrical gas–solid fluidized bed of laboratory scale is conducted. A scaled drag model is proposed and implemented into the simulation of a fluidized bed of FCC particles. The gas and particles flow in the fluidized bed is investigated by analyzing the transient simulation results. The jet penetration lengths of different jet velocities have been obtained and compared with published experimental data as well as with predictions of empirical correlations. The predictions by several empirical correlations are discussed. A good agreement between the numerical simulation and experimental results has been achieved.