Design of an Efficient Gas Distribution System for a Fluidized Bed Dryer

Fluid bed dryers are commonly used to process granular solids. The design of the gas distributor has a significant impact on the performance of heat and mass transfer with or without chemical reactions in fluidized beds because it affects the quality of the fluidization obtained. In this work, an extensive study was carried out to design an optimal gas distribution system for a fluidized bed dryer. The air distribution chamber, also called a plenum chamber or gas chamber, was modified to obtain uniform air distribution across the bed cross section. Percentage maldistribution of the flow is considered as the basic evaluation parameter to quantify uniformity of the fluidizing gas distribution. Effects of various relevant design parameters such as the ratio of the orifice diameter to plate thickness (d_o/t), percentage free area, superficial gas velocity, etc., were examined experimentally and via modeling. The gas chamber was redesigned by inserting different types of packings in the chamber. In addition, the effect of height-to-diameter ratio (H/D) of the chamber on flow distribution was studied. Chambers of different H/D ratios and different air inlet nozzle diameters at various positions were examined to evaluate their effect on flow uniformity across the distributor. Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamic studies were carried out to evaluate the effects of pertinent parameters on flow uniformity, which has a direct bearing on the quality of fluidization and hence heat and mass transfer rates obtained.