Numerical investigation of multi-scale flow hydrodynamics in the gas-solid-liquid system with multi-inlet configuration

In this work, volume of fluid method coupled with discrete element method are established to explore the multi-scale flow hydrodynamics in the gas-liquid-solid system with multi-inlet configuration. The numerical method is well validated by experimental measurements. The results reveal that: (i) the squeezing effect of the densely packed particles largely determines the multi-channel flow pattern by affecting the initial size, shape and moving direction of the bubbles newly detached from the dense bed; (ii) in the two-channel system, the unbalanced radial squeezing effect of particles leads to parenthesis-shape bubble ascending path; (iii) due to bubble collision and breakup, the volume, velocity, chord length and aspect ratio of bubbles all have a wide distribution and exhibit a characteristic of chaotic and nonlinear. The findings obtained provide meaningful insights for the understanding of multi-channel flow behaviors in gas-solid-liquid reactors.