Measurement of particle concentration in a Wurster fluidized bed by electrical capacitance tomography sensors

It is essential to measure and monitor the particle flow characteristics in a Wurster fluidized bed to understand and optimize the coating processes. In this article, two electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) sensors are used to measure the particle concentration in different regions in a Wurster fluidized bed for the “cold” particle flows. One ECT sensor has a 12‐4 internal‐external electrodes and another has eight electrodes. The 12‐4‐electrode ECT sensor is used to measure the particle concentration in the annular fluidization region (outside of the Wurster tube) and the eight‐electrode ECT sensor is used to measure the particle flow in the central region (inside the Wurster tube). The effect of particle type, particle moisture, fluidization velocity, and geometrical parameters on the Wurster fluidization process is studied based on the two ECT measurements. The radial particle concentration profiles in the annular fluidization and central flow regions with different operation parameters are given. Fast Fourier Transform analysis of the particle concentration in the Wurster tube is performed with different superficial air velocities. The optimum operating ranges of the Wurster fluidization process for different particles are given. In the end of the article, computational fluids dynamics simulation results are given and used to compare with the measurement results by ECT for a typical Wurster fluidized bed. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J 60: 4051–4064, 2014