Parametric study of fine particle fluidization under mechanical vibration

Investigations into the effects of vibration on fluidization of fine particles (4.8-216 μm average in size) show that the fluidization quality of fine particles can be enhanced under mechanical vibration, leading to larger bed pressure drops at low superficial gas velocities and lower values of u_mf. The effectiveness of vibration on improving fluidization is strongly dependent on the properties (Geldart particle type, size-distribution and shape) of the primary particles used and the vibration parameters (frequency, amplitude and angle) applied. The possible roles of mechanical vibration in fine particle fluidization have been studied with respect to bed voidage, pressure drop, agglomeration, and tensile strength of particle bed. Vibration is found to significantly reduce both the average size and the segregation of agglomerates in the bed, thus improving the fluidization quality of cohesive particles. Also, vibration can dramatically reduce the tensile strength of the particle bed. Obviously, vibration is an effective means to overcome the interparticle forces of fine powders in fluidization and enhance their fluidization quality.     

Effect of sound on the fluidization of group B particles

The behaviour of several kinds of group B particles ranging from 100 μm to 600 μm was studied in a sound wave vibrated fluidized bed (SVFB). The fluidized bed consists of a transparent Plexiglas tube that is 54 mm i.d. × 1 m high. A speaker mounted at the top of the bed was supplied by a function generator with square waves and was used to generate the sound as the source of vibration of the fluidized bed. The influence of the particle size, density of particles and sphericity of particles on the minimum fluidization velocity, pressure fluctuations and bubble rise velocity in the SVFB was investigated. The minimum fluidization velocity decreased as the sound energy increased. When the sound energy was strong enough and greater than the critical power, the minimum fluidization velocity would approach the same value regardless of the degree of resonance (DOR) value if the particles were in spherical shape. For non-spherical shape particles the minimum fluidization velocity was the function of the DOR value if the power was greater than the critical power. For the middle particle size range, the standard deviation of pressure fluctuations in an SVFB became lower than the one without the effect of sound in high superficial gas velocity range, but the result was reverse for the low superficial velocity; for the large particle size range, the standard deviation of pressure fluctuations in an SVFB was larger than the one without the effect of sound. The sound could also reduce the bubble rise velocity in an SVFB.     

CFD–DEM modeling of gas fluidization of fine ellipsoidal particles

Particle characteristics are important factors affecting gas fluidization. In this work, the effects of both particle size and shape on fluidization in different flow regimes are studied using the combined computational fluid dynamic–discrete element method approach. The results are first analyzed in terms of flow patterns and fluidization parameters such as pressure drop, minimum fluidization, and bubbling velocities. The results show that with particle size decreasing, agglomerates can be formed for fine ellipsoidal particles. In particular, “chain phenomenon,” a special agglomerate phenomenon exists in expanded and fluidized beds for fine prolate particles, which is caused by the van der Waals force. The minimum fluidization velocity increases exponentially with the increase of particle size, and for a given size, it shows a “W” shape with aspect ratio. A correlation is established to describe the dependence of minimum fluidization velocity on particle size and shape. Ellipsoids have much higher minimum bubbling velocities and fluidization index than spheres. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 62–77, 2016     

The effects of particle and gas properties on the fluidization of Geldart A particles

We report on 3D computer simulations based on the soft-sphere discrete particle model (DPM) of Geldart A particles in a 3D gas-fluidized bed. The effects of particle and gas properties on the fluidization behavior of Geldart A particles are studied, with focus on the predictions of U_mf and U_mb, which are compared with the classical empirical correlations due to Abrahamsen and Geldart [1980. Powder Technology 26, 35-46]. It is found that the predicted minimum fluidization velocities are consistent with the correlation given by Abrahamsen and Geldart for all cases that we studied. The overshoot of the pressure drop near the minimum fluidization point is shown to be influenced by both particle-wall friction and the interparticle van der Waals forces. A qualitative agreement between the correlation and the simulation data for U_mb has been found for different particle-wall friction coefficients, interparticle van der Waals forces, particle densities, particle sizes, and gas densities. For fine particles with a diameter , a deviation has been found between the U_mb from simulation and the correlation. This may be due to the fact that the interparticle van der Waals forces are not incorporated in the simulations, where it is expected that they play an important role in this size range. The simulation results obtained for different gas viscosities, however, display a different trend when compared with the correlation. We found that with an increasing gas shear viscosity the U_mb experiences a minimum point near , while in the correlation the minimum bubbling velocity decreases monotonously for increasing μ_g.     

Fluidization of nano-powders: Effect of sound vibration and pre-mixing with group A particles

The use of sound vibration as well as mixing of particles is investigated in this paper for improving the fluidizability of nano-powders. Amorphous anhydrous silicon dioxide, Aerosil 200, widely used in paint and pharmaceutical industries, was fluidized with air at superficial gas velocities as high as 25 cm/s. In the first part of the study, the bed was subjected to sound at 125 dB at a frequency 200 Hz. In the second part, a carefully selected additive material of the Geldart group A classification, presently sand, was added to the bed in relatively small proportions of 3, 6 and 11 wt.%. For the in situ monitoring of the fluidization dynamics, pressure fluctuations were acquired at a sampling frequency of 200 Hz using a fast-response sensitive-pressure transducer along the test section of the column located 11 cm and 23 cm above the distributor. The data thus obtained were analyzed in both time and frequency domains, and used for the reconstruction of system attractors and the determination of its principal eigenvalues. The combination of quantitative tools and digital images of the bed showed that both sound vibration and particle mixing improved the fluidization. The sound-assisted fluidization resulted in the de-agglomeration of the nano-powder, resulting in an expansion of the bed that was reflected in smaller values of the average pressure-drop. The fluidization was characterized by a strong periodic behavior. The addition of small proportions of group A powder, on the other hand, initially increased the average pressure-drop due to the concomitant rise in the bulk density, and led to a bubbling-like behavior reflected in more turbulent and less periodic fluidization. While the widely used sound-assisted fluidization exhibited a limited range of bed operation owing to the high elutriation rates of the bed material, not much limitation was observed for the case of particle mixing. This study showed that the use of appropriate small proportions of inert group A particles may be advantageous in improving the fluidization of nano-powders compared to the use of the energy intensive sound vibration.     

Flotation behaviour of fine particles with respect to contact angle

The flotation behaviour of methylated quartz particles of different size, but within the size range from 0.2 to 50 μm, and varying contact angle, was probed in a mechanical flotation cell. Results suggest that particles of a given size need to possess a minimum critical contact angle (θ_crit) for flotation to occur. This behaviour is shown not to be solely dependent on fine particles having lower collision efficiency with bubbles, but rather due to a combination of low collision efficiency and particles not having enough kinetic energy at collision with bubbles to form the three phase line of contact and initiate the attachment process. In the particle size range investigated, the critical contact angle increases with a decrease in particle size.     

纳米TiO2颗粒在声场流化床中的流化特性

以原生纳米级TiO2颗粒为物料，在内径为130mm的声场流化床中，考察声压、频率对纳米颗粒的流化特性的影响。结果表明，适当的低频强声波的引入能很好的抑制沟流，消除节涌，大大降低了流化床中纳米颗粒聚团的尺寸，使之在低气速下实现稳定流化，从而显著改善纳米颗粒的流化质量。     

Effect of agitation on fluidization characteristics of fine particles in a fluidized bed

The effect of agitation on the fluidization characteristics of fine particles was investigated in a fluidized bed with an I.D. of 6 cm and a height of 70 cm. The agitator used was of the pitched-blade turbine type and phosphor particles were employed as the bed material. The particle size was 22 μm and the particle density was 3938 kg/m³. The effect of the agitation speed on the fluidization characteristics was examined by statistical (average absolute deviation (AAD), probability density function (PDF)), spectral (auto-correlation function, power spectrum) and chaos analysis (strange attractor, Hurst exponent, correlation dimension). The results showed that smoother fluidization was observed with increasing agitation speed, because the agglomeration and channeling were reduced by the mechanical agitation. The signals of the pressure drop fluctuation had the shape of a short-term correlation with different agitation speed. The void fraction increased with increasing agitation speed at the constant fluidizing gas velocity.     

Fluidization of Group B particles with a rotating distributor

A novel rotating distributor fluidized bed is presented. The distributor is a rotating perforated plate, with 1% open-area ratio. This work evaluates the performance of this new design, considering pressure drop, Δp, and quality of fluidization. Bed fluidization was easily achieved with the proposed device, improving the solid mixing and the quality of fluidization.In order to examine the effect of the rotational speed of the distributor plate on the hydrodynamic behavior of the bed, minimum fluidization velocity, U_mf, and pressure fluctuations were analyzed. Experiments were conducted in the bubbling free regime in a 0.19 m i.d. fluidized bed, operating with Group B particles according to Geldart's classification. The pressure drop across the bed and the standard deviation of pressure fluctuations, σ_p, were used to find the minimum fluidization velocity, U_mf. A decrease in U_mf is observed when the rotational speed increases and a rise in the measured pressure drop was also found. Frequency analysis of pressure fluctuations shows that fluidization can be controlled by the adjustable rotational speed, at several excess gas velocities.Measurements with several initial static bed heights were taken, in order to analyze the influence of the initial bed mass inventory, over the effect of the distributor rotation on the bed hydrodynamics.     

声波与喷雾对于飞灰颗粒团聚的影响

为了研究声波团聚的影响因素，以燃煤飞灰细颗粒作为声波团聚的实验对象，使用光学颗粒物粒径谱仪测量颗粒的粒径分布与浓度，主要研究了声波频率与喷雾对声波团聚的影响。结果表明：在声波的作用下，细颗粒浓度显著减少，且声波团聚效果对频率较为敏感；无论在高声压还是低声压级下，1400Hz的频率下能获得最佳的团聚效果；在加入喷雾后，颗粒物浓度显著减小，且随着喷雾量增大，颗粒物浓度越小；分析了喷雾增强团聚效果的机理：在加入喷雾后，细颗粒间的相对运动增强；同时喷雾颗粒增大了颗粒浓度，增大了细颗粒碰撞概率；此外，喷雾改变燃煤飞灰细颗粒的表面特性，使颗粒的表面黏性增大，有助于团聚体形成。     

Surface-to-bed heat transfer in fluidised beds of fine particles

This work reports experimental results on the heat transfer between a fluidised bed of fine particles and a submerged surface. Experiments have been carried out using different bed materials (polymers, ballotini, corundum, carborundum and quartz sand) with Archimedes number between 2 and 50. Dry air at ambient pressure and temperature has been used as fluidising gas. Three different exchange surfaces, namely a sphere and two cylinders with different base diameter and same height, have been used.Experimental results show that the heat transfer coefficient increases with particle Archimedes number and is almost independent from particle thermal conductivity for K_p/K_g > 30. Finally, the comparison of heat transfer coefficient for the different surfaces shows that the effect of the surface geometry may account for a 30% variation in the heat transfer coefficient, with higher differences occurring for coarser particles.     

种子颗粒对声波团聚效率的影响

可吸入颗粒物PM10,尤其是细颗粒物PM2.5是影响空气质量的重要污染物,这些颗粒物粒径小、数目多、富集多种有害物质,在周围环境中可以存在很长时间,对人体健康和大气环境有很大影响.     

Effects of acoustic vibration on nano and sub-micron powders fluidization

Fluidization of nano and sub-micron powders with and without acoustic vibration was investigated. The effects of sound pressure level and frequency were studied. Loudspeakers located under the distributor plate were used as the sound source to disintegrate larger agglomerates concentrated at the bottom of the bed. Nanoparticles showed fluid-like behavior similar to Geldart's A group and application of sound vibration improved their fluidization quality. Submicron particles were hard to fluidize and their fluidization quality was partially improved by sound excitation. Bed compaction, caused by rearranging of the agglomerates, was observed for submicron particles at low gas velocities while the bed was fixed. Nanoparticles did not experience any bed compaction. Sound vibration led to a decrease in minimum fluidization velocity and an increase in bed pressure drop and bed expansion for both types of particles. The fluidization quality of both particles increased at low frequencies, while the reverse was observed at higher frequencies. Fluidization of these particles was improved by increasing sound pressure level. There was a critical sound pressure level of 110 dB, below which the effect of sound vibration was insignificant. A novel technique was employed to find the apparent minimum fluidization velocity from pressure drop signals.     

Flow characteristics in an acoustic bubbling fluidized bed at high temperature

The pressure fluctuation of the quartz sand and SiO₂ particles was investigated using pressure transducer in high temperature fluidized bed with sound assistance. The effects of bed temperature, sound wave frequency, and sound pressure level (SPL) on the pressure fluctuation were examined. It indicates that the minimum fluidization velocity decreases with an increase in sound pressure level at the same sound frequency. At the same SPL and bed temperature, there always exists an optimal frequency range achieving good fluidization quality. As the sound frequency increases, the minimum fluidization velocity decreases firstly and then increases. Based on the statistical analysis of pressure signals, the effect of sound frequency on the fluidization quality at high-temperature fluidized bed was presented. On basis of discrete wavelet transform, an original signal was resolved into five-detailed scale signal. Furthermore, the peak frequency for Scale 3 detail signal represents the bubbling frequency.     

Mass transfer around freely moving active particles in the dense phase of a gas fluidized bed of inert particles

The mass transfer coefficient around freely moving active particles under bubbling/slugging fluidized bed conditions was measured in a lab-scale reactor. The technique used for the measurements consisted in the oxidation reaction of carbon monoxide at over one or few Pt catalyst spheres immersed in an inert bed of sand. It was shown that this technique is simple and accurate, and allows to overcome most of the difficulties and uncertainties associated with other available techniques. The experimental campaign was carried out by varying the fluidization velocity (0.15-0.90 m/s), the active particle size (1.0-10.0 mm) and the inert particle size (0.1-1.4 mm). Results were analyzed in terms of the particle Sherwood number. Experimental data showed that Sh is not influenced by the fluidization velocity and by a change of regime from bubbling to slugging, whereas it increases with a square root dependence with the minimum fluidization velocity and with the active particle size. These results strongly suggest that the active particles only reside in the dense phase and never enter the bubble/slug phase. Data were excellently fitted by a Frössling-type correlation:

Sh=2.0·ε_mf+K·(Re_mf/ε_mf)^1/2·Sc^1/3     

Transition to turbulent fluidization in a binary solids fluidized bed

This paper presents a study on the transition velocity from bubbling to turbulent fluidization in a binary solids fluidized bed. Experiments were carried out with two kinds of binary solids mixtures with FCC as fine particles and silica sands as coarse particles. The onset velocity to turbulent fluidization, U_c, determined by the measurement of pressure fluctuations, was found to increase with increasing the fraction of coarse/heavy solids. By introducing an equivalent particle diameter and an equivalent particle density, the results obtained in this study can properly be described by a general correlation of U_c proposed by Cai and co-workers (1989) for mono-density particles with relatively narrow size distribution.     

Fluidization Characteristics of a Fine Magnetite Powder Fluidized Bed for Density-Based Dry Separation of Coal

Gas-solid fluidized bed separation technique is very beneficial for saving water resources and for the clean utilization of coal resource. The hydrodynamics of 0.15–0.06 mm fine Geldart B magnetite powder were experimentally and numerically studied to decrease the lower size limit. The results show that the static bed height should be controlled near 300 mm (e.g., 300–350 mm). The bubble size, amount, and frequency of the fine particle bed are smaller than those of the bed containing 0.3–0.15 mm large Geldart B particles, thus leading to a higher bed activity. The pressure drop and density of the fine particle bed are uniform and stable, which indicates a good fluidization quality. Furthermore, simulated results are consistent with experimental data, which indicates the correctness and effectiveness of the simulations. The superficial gas velocity should be adjusted to not more than 1.8U _mf for the fine particle bed. Additionally, wide size range magnetite powder, which contains 94.23 wt% < 0.3 mm particles with a 0.3–0.06 mm particles content of 91.38 wt%, was used in an industrial scale modularized demonstration system for 50-6 mm coal density separation. The ash content of feed coal was reduced from 55.35% to 14.67% with a probable error, E, value of 0.06 g/cm^3.     

超细颗粒在声场流化床中的流化特性

在内径为130mm的声场流化床中,以原生纳米级SiO2超细颗粒为物料,在声压水平为0～140dB、声波频率为0～500Hz范围内系统地考察了声波对超细颗粒流化特性的影响。结果表明：当声波频率为100～150Hz、声压大于130dB时,声波可以有效地消除节涌、抑制沟流、降低临界流化速度,显著地改善纳米SiO2颗粒的流化质量。在频率一定的情况下,声压越高,超细颗粒的临界流化速度越低,流化质量越好。当频率低于100Hz或高于150Hz时,随着频率的进一步降低或增加,超细颗粒的临界流化速度都增大,甚至又出现节涌和沟流。声波的效果减弱甚至消失。     

Measuring binary fluidization of nonspherical and spherical particles using machine learning aided image processing

The binary fluidization of Geldart D type nonspherical wood particles and spherical low density polyethylene (LDPE) particles was investigated in a laboratory-scale bed. The experiment was performed for varying static bed height, wood particles count, as well as superficial gas velocity. The LDPE velocity field were quantified using particle image velocimetry (PIV). The wood particles orientation and velocity are measured using particle tracking velocimetry (PTV). A machine learning pixel-wise classification model was trained and applied to acquire wood and LDPE particle masks for PIV and PTV processing, respectively. The results show significant differences in the fluidization behavior between LDPE only case and binary fluidization case. The effects of wood particles on the slugging frequency, mean, and variation of bed height, and characteristics of the particle velocities/orientations were quantified and compared. This comprehensive experimental dataset serves as a benchmark for validating numerical models.     

Factors affecting methanol photocatalytic oxidation and catalyst attrition in a fluidized-bed reactor

A resolution IV fractional factorial experimental design explored the effects of seven factors on both the methanol photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) rate and the catalyst particle size distribution using a fluidized-bed reactor. The seven factors were as follows: calcination temperature, calcination time, grinding order, particle size, vibration amplitude, carrier gas humidity, and fluidization velocity. Decreasing calcination temperature from 726 to 623 K increased the activity of TiO₂/Al₂O₃ catalysts for methanol PCO. Attrition during fluidization liberated small TiO₂ particles from the bulk catalyst and the rate of attrition increased with gas velocity. Attrition was the primary cause of catalyst elutriation and not the presence of fine particles initially present in the bed from catalyst preparation. Increasing humidity caused agglomeration of fine particles, which reduced the amount of catalyst carryover. Removal of fines from the catalyst bed prior to fluidization caused an increase in catalyst attrition until the amount of fines present in the bed was similar to that of a bed in which fines were not removed.