Bed Expansion of a Squared Gas-Solid Promoted Fluidized Bed: By Modified Godard - Richardson Equation

Abstract

Gas-solid fluidized bed is characterized by the formation of bubbles and slugs. The expansion beyond the point of incipient fluidization is primarily due to the gas bubbles. Based on Godard and Richardson’s [2] correlation for the bed expansion in a bubbling two-inch (5cm) cylindrical bed, the modified correlations for a bubbling 8.3cm squared cross section fluidized bed have been developed for both promoted and un-promoted beds considering the effect of material and the fluid properties, the column geometry and the presence of promoter. The bed expansion ratios calculated with the developed correlations have been compared with the experimental ones and fairly good agreement has been observed. The correlations for the correlation factor ‘m’ have also been obtained for both the promoted and un-promoted beds to predict the bed expansion ratio.