Comparative Study of Hydrodynamic Parameters in 3D Atmospheric Fluidized Bed

Minimum fluidization velocity is one of the important factors to understand hydrodynamics characteristics of fluidized bed. Minimum fluidization velocity is the point at which solid particles behaves like fluid when any fluid is being introduced from the bottom of the bed. Experimental Studies have been done to determine minimum fluidization velocity with the help of certain equations in the 0.348m*0.348m three Dimensional Atmospheric fluidized bed fabricated in this study. Two different materials to be fluidized were inert and biomass particles i-e local sand and rice husk of same particle diameter 149µm having different densities used to investigate minimum fluidization velocity and minimum bubbling velocity. Three different heights to diameter H/D ratios 0.8, 1 and 1.1 were selected to examine the fluidization behavior in both of the materials with different properties. Pressure drop was measured by using Ergun equation at above mentioned heights. From the experimentation, it is observed that the material with low density fluidized earlier than the material of higher density and minimum fluidization velocity remains unchanged by changing bed height for 3-Dimensional fluidized beds. Furthermore, it is also observed experimentally that pressure drop increases as height of the bed increased.