Experimental and numerical study of spouted bed fluid dynamics

Spouted beds, originally invented in Canada by Mathur and Gishler (1955) as an alternative to fluidized beds for handling coarse particles, are now widely studied in a variety of physical operations, such as drying, coating and granulation. In this work the particle velocity, minimum spouting flow rate and characteristic fluid-dynamic curves of the spouted bed were obtained using a Eulerian granular multiphase model. The computational work was significantly reduced for axisymmetric gas-solid flows. The experimental data obtained in two spouted bed configurations, conical-cylindrical and two-dimensional, were compared with the simulated results, showing good agreement.