Linking discrete particle simulation to continuum properties of the gas fluidization of cohesive particles

Discrete particle simulation can explicitly consider interparticle forces and obtain microscopic properties of the fluidized cohesive particles, but it is computationally expensive. It is thus pivotal to link the microscopic discrete properties to the macroscopic continuum description of the system for large scale applications. This work studies the fluidization of cohesive particles through the coupled computational fluid dynamics and discrete element method (CFD-DEM). First, discrete CFD-DEM results show the increased particle cohesion leads to the severe particle agglomeration which affects the fluidization quality significantly. Then, continuum properties are attained by a weighted time-volume averaging method, showing that tensile pressure becomes significant as particle cohesion increases. By incorporating Rumpf correlation into the solid pressure equation, the tensile pressure could be predicted consistently with the averaged CFD-DEM results for different particle cohesion. Finally, those overall steady averaged properties of the bed are obtained for understanding the general macroscopic properties of the system.