Bed Expansion Behaviour of Cylindrical Particles in a Three-phase Fluidized Bed

Abstract

The bed expansion profile of a co-current three-phase fluidized bed with an antenna type air sparger have been studied using liquid as the continuous phase and gas as the discontinuous phase. Air, water and ceramic raschig rings of equivalent diameter 0.006864 m are used as the gas, liquid and solid phases respectively. The experiments have been carried out in a 0.1 m internal diameter, 1.88 m height vertical Perspex column. The expanded bed height in the fluidized bed regime has been measured visually. Correlations for bed voidage have been developed. The developed correlation for bed voidage can be used for the sizing of such systems. The bed voidage is a strong function of both the liquid velocity and gas velocity. The experimental values have been compared with those predicted by the correlations and have been found to agree well.