Studies on the solid circulation rate and gas bypassing in spouted fluid‐bed with a draft tube

Abstract

Abstract Experiments were performed in a 28.6 cm diameter transparent semicircular vessel with a 9.6 cm diameter draft tube using polyethylene beads (ρ s = 0.91 g/cm 3 ) and hollow epoxy spheres (ρ s = 0.21 g/cm 3 ) as the bed material to study the effect of operating conditions, the distributor plate design, and the draft tube inlet configurations on the solid circulation rate and the gas distribution between the downcomer and the draft tube. Solid circulation rate was found to be strongly affected by the design configuration at the bottom of the draft tube and the downcomer, which provided different gas bypassing characteristics and resulted in different amount of aeration in the downcomer region.