Numerical studies of drying process of ellipsoidal particles in a fluidized bed dryer via the introduction of spherical particles

Aggregate structures are easily formed in non-spherical wet particle systems, which can be weakened via the introduction of spherical particles. In this work, a coupled computational fluid dynamics-discrete element method (CFD-DEM) is implemented to investigate the impact of spherical particles as additives on the drying process of ellipsoidal particles in a spouted bed dryer, where the liquid transfer between particles in the drying process is taken into consideration. The results demonstrate that increasing the spherical particle number can enhance the drying rate. More space between ellipsoidal particles is filled with smaller spherical particles so that the heat flux between spherical particle and ellipsoidal particle is increased. As the added spherical particle size decreases, the drying uniformity in the bed is improved.