Bends, which are one of the most commonly used facilities to change flow direction in pneumatic conveying, are known to be one of the key parameters affecting the gas-solid flow structures, such as rope formation, dispersion, and particle segregation [7]. In this work, a three-dimensional CFD-DEM model which is suitable for dilute phase is used to simulate the gas-solid flow in pneumatic conveying pipes with a bend. Compared with the traditional CFD-DEM model, the present model is less compute-intensive, and keeps the simulation effective in dilute phase where the solid volume fraction is low. The simulation is performed by the commercial simulation software EDEM coupled with Fluent. Firstly, the simulation model will be introduced. Subsequently, the result of horizontal-vertical case will be compared with the result for the traditional CFD-DEM model for its verification. Finally, the solid flow structures and collision data for different types of pneumatic conveying systems with a bend will be studied to implement the applications of this model.
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