Fluidization regimes and transitions from fixed bed to dilute transport flow

Characterization by means of Kolmogorov entropy shows that the dynamics of the bottom bed in small size circulating fluidized bed risers are significantly different from the dynamics of the dense bottom bed in large size risers and, as a consequence, two types of circulating regimes are introduced: the exploding bubble bed for large risers and the circulating ‘slugging’ bed for small risers, the latter at high superficial gas velocities. In a pictorial fluidization diagram ten gas—solid fluidization regimes are given, seven of which are experimentally identified with the Kolmogorov entropy by varying the superficial gas velocity, riser solids holdup and diameter (or width) of the riser: bubbling bed, slugging bed, exploding bubble bed, intermediate turbulent bed, circulating ‘slugging’ bed, intermediate dilute flow, and dilute transport flow. No transition could be identified between the exploding bubble bed at captive conditions and the exploding bubble bed at circulating conditions in the dense bottom bed of the two largest facilities in this study. This suggests that the dense bottom bed in large size risers can be considered as a bubbling bed. A turbulent bed was found in none of the facilities of this study with the Geldart B solids used. As well as by the Kolmogorov entropy (chaos analysis), the hydrodynamics have been characterized by amplitude of pressure fluctuations, while a solids distribution analysis has also been carried out. The study has been made in four (circulating) fluidized beds of different size and design, all operated with 0.30 mm silica sand. The dimensions of the fluidized bed risers are 1.47 × 1.42 × 13.5 m, 0.70 × 0.12 × 8.5 m, 0.12 m i.d. × 5.8 m, and 0.083 m i.d. × 4.0 m