An experimental investigation of minimum fluidization velocity at elevated temperatures and pressures

Minimum fluidization data at elevated temperatures and pressures are relatively scarce in the literature. This study was undertaken to provide some new data under these conditions. Minimum fluidization velocities at temperatures up to 800°K and pressures up to 5 MPa were measured for uniformly-sized glass beads with diameters between 0.2 mm and 4 mm in beds ranging in diameter from 30 mm to 50 mm. The experimental results are compared with a number of empirical correlations from the literature to determine the validity of the correlations under these elevated temperature and pressure conditions.