Assessment of particle shape and mass fraction on plastic- sand binary fluidization: Experiment and simulation

Understanding the fluidization behavior of binary mixtures containing non-spherical particles is crucial for optimizing and designing thermal conversion processes in fluidized beds. This study investigated the effect of non-spherical particle shape and mass fraction on plastic-sand binary mixture fluidization behavior. Fluidization characteristics including pressure drop, particle height distribution, expanded bed height, and bubble properties, were investigated and compared. A machine learning-aided image processing method was employed to segment non-spherical plastic particles from sand particles. The coarse-grained SuperDEM-CFD method was adapted to simulate the fluidization behavior of binary mixtures, and the results were compared with experimental data. The particle mixing process was also analyzed based on SuperDEM simulation results. This study found that particle shape and mass fraction significantly affect binary fluidization behavior and provide a detailed experimental dataset for validating CFD-DEM non-spherical particle simulation.