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Research Interests:
My areas of interest include multiphase flows, process simulation,
optimization, and reactor engineering.
Research Summary:
Even though fluid bed reactors are widely used,
the complexities associated with the hydrodynamic behavior, design,
scale-up, and optimization are not well understood making the
implementation of such systems base on experience rather than on a
theoretical basis. In a fluidized bed reactor, as the fluid passes through
the bed particles are ejected into the freeboard. The solids thrown up
contain particles of all sizes present in the bed. The coarser particles
fall back into the bed, while the smaller ones are dragged out of the
vessel by the gas. Elutriation is the separation of fines from a mixture
of particles via entrainment by the fluid and occurs along all the
freeboard.
Mathematical models have been proven to be useful to study gas-solid
flows, by providing insight on the behavior of such systems where
non-intrusive measurements have not been able to be done. The most widely
used models are the Eulerian and Lagrangian. In the former the solid phase
is treated as a continuum, while in the ladder each particle individually
tracked. A novel tentative alternative to model the solid phase is the
Multi-Phase Particle-in-Cell (MP-PIC). This implementation is a
combination of both of the previous models. It posses advantages of both
models, particles are grouped in clouds that are individually tracked, but
the solid phase stress is calculated from an Eulerian approach preventing
the calculation of individual collisions between particles. The
individual-cloud force balance allows the implementation of kinetic-theory
based stress models. The fact that particles are tracked in groups and
individual collisions are not solved allows the modeling of multi-particle
systems to be computationally efficient.
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