A reduced model for particle calcination for use in DEM/CFD simulations

We treat the accurate simulation of the calcination reaction in particles, where the particles are large and, thus, the inner-particle processes must be resolved. Because these processes need to be described with coupled partial differential equations (PDEs) that must be solved numerically, the computation times for a single particle are too high for use in simulations that involve many particles. Simulations of this type arise when the Discrete Element Method (DEM) is combined with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to investigate industrial systems such as quicklime production in lime shaft kilns.

We show that, based on proper orthogonal decomposition and Galerkin projection, reduced models can be derived for single particles that provide the same spatial and temporal resolution as the original PDE models at a considerably reduced computational cost. Replacing the finite volume particle models with the reduced models results in an overall reduction of the reactor simulation time by about 40% for the sample system treated here.