Study of the Fluidized Separation Process of Irregular Coarse-Grained Pulverized Coal Agglomerates Based on Modified Computational Fluid Dynamics—Population Balance Method

[Image: see text] In this work, the agglomeration, fragmentation, and separation process of coarse-grained pulverized coal agglomerates (CGPCA) obtained from a power plant were achieved using gas–solid fluidized bed sorting and analyzed through a combination of numerical simulations and actual experiments with CGPCA. To study the polydispersity and irregularity of CGPCA, the CGPCA surface fractal dimension was calculated using fractal dimension combined with scanning electron microscopy. The two-section fractal dimension of the particle size distribution was obtained by fitting the logarithmic particle size distribution of CGPCA. On the basis of the obtained data, the polydisperse particle drag force model, the agglomeration kernel function, and the breakage kernel function were modified. Thus, an irregular polydisperse gas–solid two-phase Eulerian–Eulerian model was constructed to simulate the sorting process of CGPCA in the fluidized bed. The results of the numerical simulation investigation were compared with the experimental results and showed that the simulation data, which considered the two section fractal dimension, was in better agreement with the experimental results. The cumulative logarithmic distribution of CGPCA’s size was segmented and fitted. The values of the two section fractals of the agglomerates were determined as D = 1.014 and D = 2.401, respectively. Analysis revealed that the optimal separation efficiency working condition in the simulation process, providing the highest separation efficiency of 54.7%, was generated at air velocity of 1.21 m/s.