PIV investigation on the effect of gas distributor design for fluidization of Geldart A spherical particles

Abstract

This is a hydrodynamics study on gas distribution during fluidization of the industrially relevant Geldart A type particles. The impact of 10 different distributor designs comprising perforated distributors (pitch and orifice arrangement pattern varied) and nozzle distributors (nozzle size varied) were studied experimentally on a bench-scale unit. Particle flow homogeneity in air was determined by a novel Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) analysis of the freeboard velocity field. Over 50 PIV particle phase vector field images are presented and analysed. Bed expansion, Particle attrition with and without fines, velocity profiles with and without fines and effect of fines on bed expansion were ascertained. Best distributor design for a unit such as Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) regenerator and FCC riser were found to be 0.8 cm and 0.6 cm nozzle plates distributors respectively. Confirmation with previous study revealed a correlation between homogeneous distribution of particulate flow and lower number of turbulence zones.