Effect of lift force and hydrodynamic torque on fluidization of non-spherical particles*

Recent years have witnessed a big increase in usage of renewable biological materials as source for energy and chemical production. In most equipment used in this process, particles are suspended in a gas flow, such as in gas-fluidized beds. Numerical models of these processes approximate particles as spheres, thus limiting complexities encountered with hydrodynamic forces. However, spheres are not representative of dried and milled biomass particles, which are usually characterised by an elongated shape.
So far there is only limited literature available in relation to hydrodynamic forces experienced by non-spherical particles under fluidised conditions. When suspended in a gas flow, non-spherical particles will not only experience hydrodynamic drag, but also torque and lift forces. In this study, we investigate numerically the effect of different lift and torque coefficient correlations on the fluidization of spherocylindrical particles. We employ correlations derived from previous simulations on non-spherical particles by Zastawny et al. (2012) and Sanjeevi et al. (2017).