Bed expansion of binary mixtures of irregular particles in solid–liquid fluidization: Experimental, empirical correlation, and GA‐ANN modelling

Abstract

AbstractExpansion behaviour for a bed of binary mixture of the irregularly shaped particle in Newtonian liquid was measured in two different circular columns. Variations in the physical parameters on the expansion behaviour have been reported. Bed expansion increases with an increase in liquid velocity and a decrease in particle diameter. Static bed height and expansion of the bed are low for higher diameter columns. An empirical correlation has been developed for predicting the ratio of bed height at the fluidized condition to the initial bed height as a function of the physical and dynamic variables related to the system for the binary particle mixtures. The correlation coefficient and variance of the estimate are 0.9299 and 0.0013, respectively, which is acceptable statistical accuracy. A hybrid of the genetic algorithm and neural network modelling for the prediction of the same has also been attempted where the input parameters are optimized using the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm. With a relative error of 1.46%, the genetic algorithm performed well. So, the modelling has successfully predicted the bed height ratio at fluidized conditions to the initial bed height.