Fundamentals of a centrifugal fluidized bed

Abstract

Abstract A fundamental theory based on the local momentum balances is proposed to explore the fluidizing phenomena of a centrifugal particle bed. Unlike the conventional vertical bed, a centrifugal bed is predicted to be fluidized layer by layer from the inner free surface outward, in a range of aeration rates. The span of this range increases with the depth of the particle bed. The pressure drop is predicted to exhibit a plateau, which agrees very well with the observations of many investigators, but disagrees with the investigations of Takahashi et al. and Fan et al., in which the pressure drop exhibited a maximum. Predictions of the critical fluidizing velocity and the corresponding pressure drop agree well with the data of Fan et al.