Fluidization In Conical Bed And Computational
Fluid Dynamics Modeling Of The Bed

Abstract

Fluidization is the operation by which fine solids are transformed into a fluid like state through contact with a gas or liquid. This method of contacting has a number of unusual characteristics and fluidization engineering is concerned with efforts to take advantage of this
behaviour and put it to good use. Most of the gas solid fluidization behaviour studies have been performed in conventional or columnar fluidized bed, but industrial fluidized beds are frequently manufactured with a
conical or tapered section at the bottom. The use of conical fluidized beds is beginning to receive much attention for biochemical reactions and biological treatment of waste water, also been used successfully in chemical reactions, crystallizations and in other areas.
In this paper, the bed hydrodynamics especially pressure drop, and minimum fluidization velocity in terms of superficial velocity at the bottom of the bed, and flow regimes, such as fixed bed, partially fluidized bed and fluidized bed, is to be studied successively with the
increase of superficial gas velocity in a conical bed with different bed height, particle size both experimentally and by computational fluid dynamics modelling of the bed using Ansys 13.0. The results have been compared with the calculated data from the experimental work and have been found to agree well.