Asymptotic CFD study of a plenum chamber in swirling fluid bed

In the present study, the technique of combining asyrnptotics with computational fluid dynamics (CFD), called the asymptotic computational fluid dynamics (ACFD), has been used to obtain a correlation between pressure drop coefficient and the number of pipe inlet into the plenum chamber of a swirling fluidized bed based on CFD results obtained by Othman [2010]. Othman [2010] investigated the intluence of various inlet types and hub designs as well as the introduction of multiple inlets on the aerodynamic behavior in the plenum chamber of a swirling fluidized bed. The final design chosen was the four radial offset (R/2) air inlets into the plenum chamber containing a full length cylindrical hub. This design offers a balance in the required performance characteristics, thus leads to optimum performance of the fluidized bed. The obtained correlation provide a full range of CFD results without actually carrying out the entire set of calculations. This powerful tool is still very rarely applied, especially in Malaysia. Therefore this study has provided a significant benchmark of ACFD study for fluid flow.