CFD SIMULATION OF SIEVE TRAY HYDRODYNAMICS USING OPENFOAM

Abstract

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was used to predict the hydrodynamics of transient 3-dimensional flow on sieve trays. The model is constructed in the Eulerian-Eulerian framework for two interpenetrating phases. The interphase momentum exchange term is modelled as a drag force term and evaluated using a suitable literature correlation. The turbulence properties are evaluated using a turbulence model based on the k − ϵ equations for the mixture of two phases. The open-source CFD software package OpenFOAM® version 6 was employed to build and solve the model. A set of test cases was conducted to determine the optimized solver settings. A series of simulations for sieve trays of different sizes and under different operating conditions were conducted and validated using previous CFD and experimental studies. The results of the sieve tray simulations are in good agreement with the validation data.