A THEORETICAL STUDY OF THE LIMITING HEAT TRANSFER COEFFICIENT IN FLUIDIZED BEDS

A new model is presented to describe the heat transfer process occurring in fluidized beds under the limiting condition of very short contact times between the heat transfer surface and the emulsion phase. Unlike other work in this area the proposed model assumes that the particles are in constant motion close to the surface throughout the heat transfer process. The effect of the non-continuum gas film assumption (the Smoluchowski effect) when particles are very close to the surface is found to be of secondary importance when compared with the movement of particles close to the surface. Expressions for both the instantaneous and time averaged heat transfer coefficients for individual and a spatial distribution of parlicles are presented.