MASS AND MOMENTUM TRANSFER WITH NON-NEWTONIAN FLUIDS IN FLUIDIZED BEDS

A new model for non-Newtonian fluid flows through fluidized beds is developed by extending the Richardson-Zaki concept. In the proposed model, the existing correlations for an isolated single sphere are simply extended to those for a fluidized bed by incorporating a voidage function. The model is found to be in a good agreement with other correlations for flows of a non-Newtonian fluid through multi-particle systems. The model is also applied to interpret mass transfer in fluidized beds.