The impact of vertical internals array on the key hydrodynamic parameters in a gas-solid fluidized bed using an advance optical fiber probe

Abstract

The effect of a circular configuration of intense vertical immersed tubes on the hydrodynamic parameters has been investigated in a gas-solid fluidized bed of 0.14 m inside diameter. The experiments were performed using glass beads solid particles of 365 μm average particle size, with a solid density of 2500 kg/m3 (Geldart B). An advanced optical fiber probe technique was used to study the behavior of six essential local hydrodynamic parameters (i.e., local solids holdup, particles velocity, bubble rise velocity, bubble frequency, and bubble mean chord length) in the presence of vertical immersed tubes. The experimental measurements were carried out at six radial positions and three axial heights, which represent the three key zones of the bed: near the distributor plate, the middle of the fluidizing bed, and near the freeboard of the column. Furthermore, four superficial gas velocities (u/umf = 1.6, 1.76, 1.96, and 2.14) were employed to study the effect of operating conditions. The experimental results demonstrated that the vertical internals had a significant effect on all the studied local hydrodynamic characteristics such that when using internals, both the solids holdup and bubble mean chord length decreased, while the particles velocity, bubble rise velocity, and bubble frequency increased. The measured values of averaged bubble rise velocities and averaged bubble chord lengths at different axial heights and superficial gas velocities have been compared with most used correlations available in the literature. It was found that the measured values are in good agreement with values calculated using predicted correlation for the case without vertical internals. While, the absolute percentage relative error between the measured and calculated values of these two hydrodynamic parameters indicate large differences for the case of vertical internals.