Numerical simulation of heat transfer in packed beds by two population thermal lattice Boltzmann method

Department of Heat Engineering and Environment Protection, Faculty of Metals Engineering and Industrial Computer Science, AGH University of Science and Technology, Aleja Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Cracow, Poland

^a Corresponding author: straka@metal.agh.edu.pl

Received: 2 December 2014
Accepted: 11 April 2015

Abstract

The Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) was used for simulation of a gas flow and conjugate heat transfer in fixed packed beds with solid particles inside. D2Q9 version of the Factorized Central Moment (FCMLBM) is used for a gas flow computation. Heat transfer in the bed is described by second distribution function set and multiple relaxation time lattice Boltzmann method (DDF MRT LBM) is used. Numerical solver is implemented using NVIDIA CUDA framework and comparison of performance on different GPUs is presented as well. Validation of the code is done using experimentally measured values of temperatures in fixed rock bed in a high-temperature thermal storage experiment. Next, the rate of heat transfer in a large scale fixed bed is numerically investigated, together with description of the bed’s thermal characteristics for two different mass flow rates of hot air.