Fluidisation

inlet press.

Downwards flow
particles resist the flow.
when the ow is streamline, the press. drop across the
bed is directly proportional to the rate of ow, although at
higher rates the pressure drop rises more rapidly.

Upwards flow

Outlet press.

at low rate, it has the same behavior as downwards flow.

when the frictional force on the particles becomes equal
to their apparent weight, the particles rearranged which Outlet press.
offering less resistance to the fluid ow and the bed starts
to expand with a corresponding increase in voidage.
further increasing in velocity, the individual particles
separate from one another and become freely supported in
the uid. At this stage, the bed is described as uidised
bed.
inlet press.

 Further increase in the velocity causes the particles to separate

still further from one another.

Increasing the velocity if the fluid is liquid?

the bed continues expand as the velocity is increased and it
maintains its uniform character, with the degree of agitation
of the particles increasing progressively. This type of
uidisation is known as particulate uidisation.

Increasing the velocity if the fluid is gas?

uniform uidisation is frequently obtained only at low
velocities.
At higher (u), two separate phases may form (i) a continuous
phase (dense or emulsion phase), (ii) and a discontinuous
phase (lean or bubble phase). The uidisation process is
known as aggregative.

Froude No.

u 2 mf
gd

Why lower values of the Froude number are encountered with

liquid?
the minimum velocity required to produce uidisation is less
comparing with gas.

Applications and advantages

Applications:
Thermal cracking
Synthesis process

Advantages:
Intimate mixing
Very high heat transfer rates that resulting in uniform
temperatures which are quickly attained throughout
the system (easy control of the temp.).

Effect of uid velocity on pressure

gradient and pressure drop
Velocity (vs) press. grad.
In streamline flow, a linear
relation exists between pressure
gradient and owrate.
When u = umf, then
By increasing y (u), the pressure
gradient then starts to increase
again (frictional drag of the uid
at the walls of the tube starts to
become signicant)

 Velocity (vs) press. Drop

A linear relation is obtained up to
the point where expansion is taken
place (A).
By increasing (u), the pressure drop
passes through a maximum value
(B) and then falls slightly and
attains an approximately constant
value (independent u) (CD).
If (u) reduced, the bed reaches (E)
where the porosity has the
maximum stable value, where u =
umf
Note that (EF) is less than the one
before fluidisation.

 Pressure drop from the initial expansion of the bed [with (l) depth
and porosity (s)] until transport of solids takes place is calculated
by:
1

For a uidised bed, P in equation (1) can be substituted in (2)

3

Minimum uidising velocity

The minimum uidising velocity (umf ) is obtained by substituting
(emf)into equation (3):
4

Equation (4) is based on the CarmanKozeny equation ( laminar

ow). In practice, this restricts its application to ne particles. Then
the value of emf is a function of the shape, size distribution and
surface properties of the particles.
By substituting a typical value of 0.4 for emf, eq. 4 will be as:
5

Then eq 8 will be as:

9

and since

Laminar flow

a)

Assume that emf = 0.4

b)

Stokes law is applied to calculate the terminal falling velocity of particles

However, it is applied for laminar flow

Motion of Particles in a Fluid mathematically represented as:

And by using the figure (as shown in next slide), we got that Re = 0.09

LIQUID-SOLIDS SYSTEMS
expansion of the bed that takes place as the velocity increases from the
minimum uidisation velocity to the terminal falling velocity of the particles

The index can be obtained from:

An alternative way to calculate n:

To calculate the index

Using eq. (6.31),