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Multiphase Systems: Particle Engineering: Lecture 2, Part 1: The Fundamentals of Fluidisation

This document provides an introduction to fluidization and fluidized beds. It discusses key learning outcomes related to fluidized beds and their applications. It defines concepts like superficial velocity, voidage, permeability, and introduces equations like Darcy's Law and the Carman Kozeny equation that relate these concepts and describe fluid flow through packed beds of particles. The document emphasizes that fluidization occurs when the drag force of fluid flowing through a packed bed equals the weight of the particles.

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Jimmy Wu
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53 views25 pages

Multiphase Systems: Particle Engineering: Lecture 2, Part 1: The Fundamentals of Fluidisation

This document provides an introduction to fluidization and fluidized beds. It discusses key learning outcomes related to fluidized beds and their applications. It defines concepts like superficial velocity, voidage, permeability, and introduces equations like Darcy's Law and the Carman Kozeny equation that relate these concepts and describe fluid flow through packed beds of particles. The document emphasizes that fluidization occurs when the drag force of fluid flowing through a packed bed equals the weight of the particles.

Uploaded by

Jimmy Wu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Multiphase Systems:

Particle Engineering
Lecture 2, Part 1:
The Fundamentals of Fluidisation
Part 1a: Introduction
Learning Outcomes

 Applications
  of fluidised beds
 Relating flow and “permeability” – Darcy’s Law
 Relating “permeability” to measurable system
parameters – the Carman Kozeny equation and the
Ergun equation.
 Understanding the principles of fluidization
 Know how to calculate the minimum fluidization
velocity,
 Know the difference between particulate and bubbling
fluidisation
 Understand the two-phase theory of fluidisation
Learning Outcomes

 Applications
  of fluidised beds
 Relating flow and “permeability” – Darcy’s Law
 Relating “permeability” to measurable system
parameters – the Carman Kozeny equation and the
Ergun equation.
 Understanding the principles of fluidization
 Know how to calculate the minimum fluidization
velocity,
 Know the difference between particulate and bubbling
fluidisation
 Understand the two-phase theory of fluidisation
Why should you care?

  
Fluidised beds are used in a vast number of
industrial applications
– Combustion (coal)
– Drying
– Calcination ( to /gypsum to plaster)
– Gasification of biomass
– Chemical synthesis
– Coating (e.g. pharmaceuticals)
–…
Why should you care?
 Not just ‘old school’ Chemical
Engineering
 Some very exciting, novel
applications:
– Atomic layer deposition
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– Waste plastic recycling


 https://recyclingtechnologies.co.uk

 That’s right – fluidisation might

save the world!


But what is it?
   simply: when a bed of
Put
particles stops sitting statically a 𝑈 
solid and starts flowing like a
fluid
 Consider a static bed of particles  
 Now consider a fluid flowing
through the bed with velocity
 The fluid will exert a drag force
on the particles
But what is it?
 For low flow rates (and/or low
viscosities and/or densities…), the
particle weight will exceed the 𝑈 
drag force
  the bed will remain static, and
the fluid will simply flow through it  
 When the drag force equals the  
particle weight, they will no longer
rest on each other
 This is the point of fluidisation!
 As U increases further, the bed
expands!
Part 1b: Flow through a
Static Bed
First things first…
  
Before dealing with the
complexities of 2-phase flow, let us
first consider the fixed-bed case… 𝑈 
 Here, gaps in the particle phase
form a continuum through which
the fluid flows
 Clearly, the reduced area through
which the fluid can flow will
increase its mean velocity…
 However, for simplicity, we Note: we’ll be
consider only a superficial seeing a lot of this!
velocity,
Superficial Velocity
  
The superficial velocity is a
hypothetical flow velocity
calculated as if our fluid is the only 𝑈 
thing flowing
 It is defined as , where:
– is the volume flow rate in
– is the cross-sectional area of the full
system (ignoring particles) in
– …giving a velocity in
Pressure drop across a particle bed
   fluid flows through the
As
pores/interstices between
particles, it will experience 𝑈 
drag.
 This drag will cause a
pressure drop,  𝑃2

𝐿 
 Often useful to consider a
pressure drop per unit  𝑃1
length,
Permeability and Darcy’s Law
  
Darcy’s Law defines the permeability of a porous
medium (e.g. our packed bed)

where:
– is the intrinsic permeability of the particle bed ()
– is the fluid flow rate ()
– is pressure drop across the bed ()
– is the depth of the bed ()
– is the cross-sectional area of the bed ()
– is the (dynamic) viscosity of the fluid ()
What does it tell us?
  

 Darcy’s Law actually tells us a lot about the basic


properties of fluid flow, for instance:
–:
 If there is no pressure gradient, no flow

occurs
– Minus sign:
 If there is a pressure gradient, flow will occur

from high pressure towards low pressure


What does it tell us?
  

–:
 Greaterpressure gradients give greater
discharge rates (for same fluid and material)
–:
 Even at a constant pressure, the flow rate
may differ based on the material, the
arrangement of the material, or even the
direction of flow!
What does it tell us?

Note that Darcy’s Law is only valid for


laminar flow!
What is Permeability?

  
Any ideas?
 Short answer: a measure of how easily a
fluid may pass through a given porous
medium.
– (Higher permeability easier flow)
 Affected by ‘porosity’ or ‘voidage’, but
also the shapes of the voids/pores in a
material and their ‘connectedness’
𝑉 
What is Voidage?
  
The voidage, or ‘void fraction’,
is quite literally that – the
fraction of a volume occupied
by particles that is actually just
empty space!
 Consider a given (empty)
volume
 We then pour in a volume of
particles (solids) to form a
loosely-packed bed
What is Voidage?
𝑉 

Question: do the particles fill the container?


Answer: yes and no…
What is Voidage?
𝑉 

Clearly, although the particles occupy the full height


and width of our container, they do not occupy it’s
whole volume!
What is Voidage?
𝑉 

 𝑉 𝑠

 𝑉 𝑣

Therefore
   we can assert that our total volume, , is
made up of a solids fraction,
and a void fraction,
What is Voidage?
𝑉 

Voidage depends on shape, size range, and


orientation of solid particles.
For example, a polydisperse bed can pack more
tightly than a monodisperse bed
What is Voidage?
𝑉  𝑉 𝑉 𝑉
𝑉 
     
𝑉 𝑉 𝑉

     
𝑉 𝑉 𝑉

     
𝑉 𝑉 𝑉

     
𝑉 𝑉 𝑉

     

Similarly, a bed of cuboids can pack more


effectively than a bed of spheres
𝑉 
What is Voidage?

   a bed of monosized
For
spheres, the theoretical
minimum voidage is 0.28, and
the maximum is 0.48
 Most packed beds of solids lie
in the range
𝑉 
What is Voidage?

 That’s all well and good… but


how do we relate this voidage
to our permeability??
 Answer: the Carman Kozeny
equation
– …coming up in the next
mini-lecture!

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