Effect of Liquid Viscosity on Pressure Drop in Batch Liquid - solid Fluidized Beds

Abstract

The present study deals with the development of correlations in order to predict pressure drop in a batch liquid-solid fluidized bed with liquids of varying viscosity, for unpromoted bed as well as a bed with triangular rod promoter.Experiments have been conducted to obtain pressure drop and bed expansion data with different system variables namely, initial static bed height, particle size and density, mass velocity and viscosity of the fluidizing medium.Expressions relating the pressure drop data, in terms of Euler number, with the system parameters have been obtained in case of beds having with and without promoter. The values of Euler number predicted with the help of correlations developed have been found to agree fairly well with the corresponding experimental ones. A comparison of the pressure drop values has also been made for beds with and without promoter for varying conditions of system parameters.