Thermofluid effect on energy storage in fluidized bed reactor

The development of innovative systems of heat storage is imperative to improve the efficiency of the existing systems used in the thermal solar energy applications. Several techniques were developed and realized in this context. The technology of the sand fluidized bed (sandTES) offers a promising alternative to the current state-of-the-art of the heat storage systems, such as fixed bed using a storage materials, as sand, ceramic, and stones, etc. Indeed, the use of the fluidization technique allows an effective heat transfer to the solid particles. With the sand, an important capacity of storage is obtained by an economic and ecological material [N. Mahfoudi, A. Moummi, M. El Ganaoui, Appl. Mech. Mater. 621 , 214 (2014); N. Mahfoudi, A. Khachkouch, A. Moummi B. Benhaoua, M. El Ganaoui, Mech. Ind. 16 , 411 (2015); N. Mahfoudi, A. Moummi, M. El Ganaoui, F. Mnasri, K.M. Aboudou, 3 e Colloque internationale Francophone d”energetique et mecanique, Comores, 2014 , p. 91]. This paper presents a CFD simulation of the hydrodynamics and the thermal transient behavior of a fluidized bed reactor of sand, to determine the characteristics of storage. The simulation shows a symmetry breaking that occurs and gave way to chaotic transient generation of bubble formation after 3 s. Furthermore, the predicted average temperature of the solid phase (sand) increases gradually versus the time with a gain of 1 °C in an interval of 10 s.