Pressure drop in slotted spouted beds of grains: Comparison of data with models

Data obtained in a rectangular slot spouted bed for two different grains (wheat and oats) have been analyzed to determine the minimum spouting velocity (V_ms) and the minimum spouting pressure drop (ΔP_ms) as a function of the bed height.Three different aerodynamic regimes occur as the bed height is increased.The results are compared with the literature models for the conventional (conical-cylindrical) spouted bed.For shallow beds, the experimental minimum spouting velocity and minimum spouting pressure drop can be well represented by the Littman et al.'s two-dimensional model.     

A Discussion on Minimum Spout Velocity and Jet Penetration Length

The similarity and difference between the flat‐bottom and cone‐bottom cylindrical spouted beds, conical spouted beds and vertical upward jets in fluidized beds have been analyzed in this paper based on the effects of geometrical parameters on the minimum spouting velocity and operating stabilities of the spouted beds. The effect of angle on minimum spouting velocity was found to be only significant within the range of 30 to 60 degrees cone angles. Minimum spouting velocity in deep cylindrical spouted beds was proportional to the square root of the static bed height, but was proportional to the static bed height in conical spouted beds and large cylindrical spouted beds with small height‐to‐diameter ratio. The relationship between the minimum spouting velocity and the static bed height was consistent with that between jet velocity and the vertical jet penetration length in jetting fluidized beds.     

A comparative hydrodynamic study of two types of spouted bed reactor designs

In order to properly design and scale up spouted beds, one needs to predict the minimum spouting velocity of specific systems having different bed dimensions, and properties of particle and spouting gas. Because of inherent complexity of predicting minimum spouting velocity, the prevailing approach has been to use empirical correlations, a number of which are available in the literature. Central jet distributors are commonly used in the experimental studies reported in the literature. Circular slit distributor is a new concept in which air is supplied to the bed of particles through a circular slit. This paper presents results of an experimental study on the hydrodynamics of central jet and circular slit distributors. In this paper a fully connected feed-forward neural network model was used to predict the minimum spouting velocity of central jet and circular slit spouted beds. A neural network model was also developed to predict minimum fluidization velocity. The actual experimental data obtained from published literature and from the experiments carried out in this study were used for training and validating the models. The minimum spouting and fluidization velocities predicted using the neural network models developed in this study show a better approximation to the actual experimental values than those obtained from correlations available in the open literature. The position of flow regime of circular slit spouted bed was also established relative to the flow regimes of central jet spouted bed and fluidized bed.     

Fluid Dynamic Behavior in a Spouted Bed with Binary Mixtures Differing in Size

In this work, the response surface methodology has been used to quantify the effect of the mixture composition and static bed height on the minimum spouting condition, as well as on the segregation phenomena, for a spouted bed operating with binary mixtures, differing in size. In order to analyze the segregation phenomena, some computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations were performed. The CFD simulations, based on a Eulerian granular multiphase model, showed good agreement with experimental characteristic curves of a spouted bed operating with different mixtures compositions. Moreover, the simulated radial and axial profiles of fraction of the largest particles showed a coherent behavior, when compared with literature results.     

Minimum fluid flowrate,pressure drop and stability of a conical spouted bed

A model for calculating the minimum spouting flowrate and pressure drop in a conical spouted bed has been developed and described in our previous paper (Had?ismajlovi et al., 1986). In the present work, this model was examined at a wider range of experimental conditions and it was found that measured and predicted values of the minimum spouting flowrate and pressure drop differed by about 10.3% and 20.0%, respectively. It is shown that the spouted bed in a conical column is stable when the inlet tube diameter is less than 25 particle diameters.     

Liquid spouting of pulp fibers in a conical vessel

Pulp fibers can be spouted in water in a conical vessel. The entities which are spouted are fiber flocs rather than individual fibers. Synthetic fibers, which do not flocculate, cannot be spouted. For comparison, rigid spherical particles were spouted with water in the same conical vessel. Liquid spouting of rigid particles was similar to gaseous spouting. For pulp spouting, the minimum spouting velocity is proportional to the mass of fibers in the bed and inversely proportional to the diameter of the inlet. For rigid particles, the minimum spouting velocity is proportional to the height of the bed and inversely proportional to the square of the diameter of the inlet. A model for the minimum spouting velocity was developed for pulp spouting.     

Determination of Minimum Spouting Velocities in Conical Spouted Beds

Minimum spouting velocities in conical spouted beds have been obtained from pressure drops versus the superficial gas velocity curves, based on both increasing and decreasing the superficial gas velocity. It has been shown that the minimum spouting velocity from decreasing the superficial gas velocity is lower than from increasing the superficial gas velocity in most cases. This phenomenon is similar to that in conventional spouted beds and different from the early works. The experimental results also showed that there isn't significant difference in the pressure drop and U_ms under identical operating conditions between semi‐circular and circular conical spouted beds, and the same U_ms can be obtained from absolute pressure drops at any position above the gas inlet. The U_ms is found to increase with increasing the cone angle and static bed height, as well as the gas inlet diameter to a less extent.     

Minimum spouting velocity in multiple spouted beds

Studies have been carried out in multiple spouted beds having 2, 3 and 4 spout cells; different fluid inlet orifices and different solids have been used with air and water as spouting fluids. The minimum spouting velocities are measured for different bed depths. The experimental data for particle Reynolds number at minimum spouting have been correlated and the square root mean deviation between the calculated and experimental values is found to be 8.75 %.     

Minimum spouting velocity for the pyrolysis of scrap tyres with sand in conical spouted beds

The effect of temperature (in the 298-973 K range) on minimum spouting velocity has been studied in conical spouted beds made up of mixtures of tyre and sand particles, for different sizes of tyre particles and for different tyre/sand ratios. The good fit to the experimental results confirms the validity of the correlations already proposed by Olazar et al. [M. Olazar, M.J. San José, A.T. Aguayo, J.M. Arandes, J. Bilbao, Stable operation conditions for gas-solid contact regimes in conical spouted beds, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 31 (1992) 1784-1791] for room temperature, which is due to the fact that they take into account the density and viscosity of the gas. For fine particles, the effect of density prevails on the effect of viscosity and the equations proposed by Bai et al. [D. Bai, Y. Masuda, N. Nakagawa, K. Kato, Hydrodynamic behavior of a binary solids fluidized bed, J. Chem. Eng. Jpn. 29 (1996) 211-216] are suitable for the calculation of the average particle size and density, in order for them to be used in the calculation of minimum spouting velocity. For coarse particles, the effect of gas viscosity is insignificant compared to the effect of density and the equation of Goossens et al. [W.R.A. Goossens, G.L. Dumont, G.L. Spaepen, Fluidization of binary mixtures in the laminar flow region, Chem. Eng. Prog. Symp. Ser. 67 (1971) 38-45] is suitable for the calculation of the average particle size required for ascertaining minimum spouting velocity.     

Minimum spouting velocity of dense particles in shallow spouted beds

Quantitative method is used to experimentally measure the minimum spouting velocity in shallow conical spouted bed. And a new minimum spouting correlation for shallow conical spouted beds is developed. It is based on spherical ZrO₂ particles whose density is as high as 5890 kg/m³ while the other U_ms correlations published so far are mainly based on relatively deep conical beds composed of lower density particles with density around or lower than 3000 kg/m³. The new U_ms correlation can predict U_ms of heavy particles well within the range of the experimental matrix. © 2011 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering     

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling of spouted bed: Influence of frictional stress, maximum packing limit and coefficient of restitution of particles

Following the previous article [Du, W., Bao, X., Xu, J., Wei, W., 2006. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling of spouted bed: assessment of drag coefficient correlations. Chemical Engineering Science 61 (5), 1401-1420], this contribution describes the influences of the frictional stress, maximum packing limit and coefficient of restitution of particles on CFD simulation of spouted beds. Using the two-fluid method embedded in the commercial CFD simulation package Fluent 6.1, the spouting hydrodynamics of a cylindrical-conical spouted bed was simulated and verified with the experimental data of He et al. [He, Y.L., Lim, C.J., Grace, J.R., Zhu, J.X., Qin, S.Z., 1994a. Measurements of voidage profiles in spouted beds. Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering 72 (4), 229-234; He, Y.L., Qin, S.Z., Lim, C.J., Grace, J.R., 1994b. Particle velocity profiles and solid flow patterns in spouted beds. Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering 72(8), 561-568]. The results showed that, for coarse particles, the frictional stress is important only for the annulus computation and has no obvious effects on the hydrodynamics of the solids flow in the spout region. The specification of the maximum packing limit could significantly affect the properties of the pseudo-fluid phase of the particles by changing the radial distribution function. The strong dependence of the pseudo-fluid properties of the particle phase, such as pressure, bulk viscosity and shear viscosity, on the granular temperature accounts for the influence of the coefficient of restitution of particles on CFD modeling. The solids volume fraction at loose packing state is suitable for spouted bed simulations, and a pretest of the coefficient of restitution of particles must be conducted when no experimental datum is available.     

Spouting characteristics of spf wood pellets

The spouting characteristics with ambient air of cylindrical wood pellets, 6.5 mm in diameter and 11.1 ± 4.1 mm long, were investigated using a transparent 152.4‐mm diameter semi‐circular cone‐based cylindrical column. Despite the previously unexplored shape of the pellets in the spouted bed mode, the measured minimum spouting velocities at different bed heights, the maximum spoutable bed height and the mean spout diameter above the conical base were all well represented by equations from the literature developed mainly for more rounded particles. Pellet attrition was found to be severe, so that the possible torrefaction of the pellets by the spouting technique without sacrifice of their integrity appears to be unlikely. © 2012 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering     

Hydrodynamics of a gas-driven gas-liquid-solid spouted bed with a draft tube

A cylindrical gas-liquid-solid spouted bed, driven exclusively by gas flow, has been developed with a high potential for use in biochemical processes, such as a biological wastewater treatment. A plexiglass column with a 152 mm inner diameter was used in combination with a 53 mm inner diameter plexiglass draft tube. Three particle types were studied with densities ranging from 1044 kg/m³-1485 kg/m³ and average particle sizes ranging from 0.7-2.5 mm. Four flow regimes were observed when increasing the gas velocity, including fixed bed, semispouted bed, full spouted bed, and internal circulating fluidized bed. The transition gas velocities between those regimes were experimentally measured and termed as minimum spouting velocity, full spouting velocity, and minimum circulating velocity, respectively. A measurement of the downward particle flux in the annulus was used to identify the minimum spouting velocity, while the particle velocity and dense phase retraction in the annulus were monitored for the full spouting and minimum circulating velocities. All regime transition velocities increased with more dense particles and longer draft tubes. The minimum spouting velocity and full spouting velocity were not affected when varying the nozzle-tube gap, while the minimum circulating velocity increased with longer nozzle-tube gaps. Experiments without a draft tube were carried, though the spouting stability was significantly reduced without the draft tube.     

Evaluation of flow regimes in a semi‐cylindrical spouted bed through statistical,mutual information,spectral and Hurst's analysis

Hydrodynamic studies were conducted in a semi‐cylindrical spouted bed column of diameter 150 mm, height 1000 mm, conical base included angle of 60° and inlet orifice diameter 25 mm. Pressure transducers at several axial positions were used to obtain pressure fluctuation time series with 1.2 and 2.4 mm glass beads at U/U_ms from 0.3 to 1.6, and static bed depths from 150 to 600 mm. The conditions covered several flow regimes (fixed bed, incipient spouting, stable spouting, pulsating spouting, slugging, bubble spouting and fluidization). Images of the system dynamics were also acquired through the transparent walls with a digital camera. The data were analyzed via statistical, mutual information theory, spectral and Hurst's Rescaled Range methods to assess the potential of these methods to characterize the spouting quality. The results indicate that these methods have potential for monitoring spouted bed operation.     

Minimum spouting velocity of conical spouted beds

Existing correlations for predicting minimum spouting velocity in conical spouted beds have been found to give poor agreement with available literature data. A new correlation has been developed based on literature data to give much better prediction of the minimum spouting velocity for both small and pilot-scale conical-spouted beds.     

Spouting of two-dimensional beds with draft plates

Two slotted two-dimensional spouted bed units with flexible bed dimensions were used with draft plates to study spouting pressure drop and minimum spouting superficial velocity. The data were collected while varying slant angle, spout width, separation distance, length of bed, height of bed, and size of bed (geometrical similarity) using shelled corn, soybean, and wheat. The variables which affect the spouting pressure drop and air flow through the beds are discussed. Empirical correlations are developed following the principles of dimensional analysis and similitude. The developed correlations agree closely with the collected data.     

Particle velocity and solids circulation rate in a jet-spouted bed

Radial distribution of particle velocities, solids circulation rate and radial variation in bed voidage in a jet-spouted bed were investigated in a 0.2 m diameter conical-cylindrical column. The upward particle velocity is strongly dependent on gas velocity and its radial profile is the Gaussian. The solids circulation rates are of the same order of magnitude as those in a conventional spouted bed and are proportional to the gas velocity. Estimation of the variation in bed voidage in the radial direction revealed that the annulus voidage of about 0.90 was greater than the spout voidage of around 0.70. This tendency is contrary to that in a conventional spouted bed.     

水平辅助气对喷动床流动特性影响的研究

在上部内径为 195mm柱状、下部为 6 0°锥体的喷动床中水平引入辅助气 ,考察了水平辅助气对流动特性的影响。实验结果发现 ,辅助气的水平引入比竖直或法向引入可以更有效地抑制喷动气体向环流区扩散 ,降低最小喷动气速。在总气速一定的条件下 ,增大辅助气速的比例 ,可以降低喷动区空隙率而使颗粒浓度增大 ,提高颗粒的循环流动量。相比而言 ,喷动气速对喷动区颗粒的流动速度影响较大 ,而水平辅助气速对环流区颗粒的流动速度影响较大     

Pressure Fluctuations in Jet Spouted Beds

Jet spouted beds that consisted of a transparent Plexiglas cylindrical column of 1 m high and a conical base with cone angles of 30°, 36°, and 40° were used in this study. The particles used were spherical glass beads with an average diameter of 1.7, 2.1 and 3 mm, respectively, and particle size of 2.2 – 3.1 mm, non‐spherical rice particles. The effect of size and shape of particles, and static bed height on the minimum jet spouting velocity, and standard deviation of pressure fluctuations, was investigated. The results show that the minimum jet spouting velocity and pressure drop increased as the bed height and particle size increased. The minimum jet spouting velocity could be determined from the plot of standard deviation of pressure fluctuations vs. superficial gas velocity. The results obtained were in close agreement with the results of other methods in the literature.     

双喷嘴矩形喷动床流动性能实验研究

在120 mm×240 mm的双喷嘴矩形不锈钢床内,对新型双喷嘴矩形导流管喷动床的最小喷动速度和喷动高度进行了研究,考察了喷动气速、粒径、静床层高度、导流管直径、导流管安装位置对最小喷动速度和喷动高度的影响。结果表明:最小喷动速度随颗粒直径、导流管直径、导喷距的增大而增大,随静床层高度的增大而减小;喷动高度随喷动气速的增大而增大,随导流管直径的增大而减小,受静床层高度和导喷距的影响不大,并得出了最小喷动速度的关联式。