Hydrodynamics characteristics of agglomerated carbon nanotube in a tapered fluidized bed

In this paper, hydrodynamics characteristics of carbon nanotube (CNT) particles in a tapered fluidized bed reactor without a distributor are studied using numerical simulation. This experimental study is for comparative analysis between simulation and experiment, which is conducted to verify the reliability of the simulation process. The influence of different operating parameters on the structural characteristics of the gas-CNT particles is analyzed. The results revealed that a higher initial bed height leads to a gradual increase in the particle concentration at each section. With the increase of particle size, CNT particles at each section gradually exhibit the state of “accumulation”. The temperature at the bottom part of a cone is highly sensitive to CNT particle size and the initial bed. With the increase of calculation time, the nitrogen velocity field of nitrogen tends to be stable after 15 s, showing an S-shaped distribution.