Hydrodynamics of particles in liquid-solid packed fluidized bed

Hydrodynamic properties of different particles in unary liquid-solid fluidized bed were well studied and are reported in literature. However, till date the same in liquid-solid binary packed fluidized bed has not been studied and no information is available in literature. Presently, it is well known that particles behave differently in a gas-solid packed fluidized bed; than in a unary gas-solid fluidized bed. A series of experiments were conducted to investigate the hydrodynamic characteristics of particles in liquid-solid packed fluidized bed as a function of particle size, fraction of interstitial void volume filled by particles and bed wall temperature. It was found that, like in gas-solid packed fluidized bed; the minimum fluidization velocity of particles in liquid-solid packed fluidized bed is lower than that of particles in conventional unary liquid-solid fluidized bed, but unlike gas-solid System, the minimum fluidization velocity increases with an increase in bed wall temperature. Experimental details and results are discussed in this paper. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.