The Effect Of Distributor Design On Hydrodynamics Of Conical Fluidized Bed Dryer

Abstract

The paper presents the comparative study of hydrodynamics of conical fluidized bed dryer. Three types of distributor plates have been used.The influence of perforated plate , punched plate and dutch weave mesh distributor designs on fluidized bed dryer hydrodynamics was investigated for a range of bed loadings and superficial gas velocities. The placebo granulates was used as fluidized material. Wet bed loadings of 1, 3 and 5 kg were used with initial static bed heights of 12, 22 and 30 cm respectively. Gas velocity used are 1.5 and 3 m/s. Standard deviation and power spectrum analysis of the pressure fluctuations were used to analyse the hydrodynamic behaviour of the bed during the drying process. The analysis shows punched plate giving improved performance over the other designs at a gas velocity of 1.5 m/s and bed loadings greater than 1.0 kg.