Jordan University of Science and Technology Department of

Chemical Engineering

Unit Operations Laboratory

CHE 565

Title of the Experiment: Fluidization

Group Number: A

Student Name: Mujahid Al-kolaibi

Student Number: 108963

Grading

ITEM GRADE

Abstract 20
Results and Discussion 50
Conclusions and Recommendations 20
References 5
Appendices (Raw data, calculations, etc.…) 5
TOTAL GRADE 100

Short Report
Abstract:
Fluidization one of the common industrial processes and used in wide rang in
industry such as chemical reaction, drying of solids, mixing, etc. this experiment
was conducted to study behavior of some parameters involved in fluidization
process like as height of packed material, pressure drop and heat transfer
coefficient. The process was done in two parts one without heating and the other
was with heating, in both parts a compressed air was passed through the bed at
different flowrate, the bed contains alumina, the air flowed, and pressure drop,
temperatures and height of alumina are recorded. In both parts the height of
alumina increased as the flowrate of air increased and decreased as it decreased but
didn’t go back to their initial height, and in part of heating was recorded the
highest elevation 13.2 cm. also with heating the fluidization stage was reached
faster than other part. For pressure also increased as flow increased till reach 10.6
cm H2O then stilled constant. At present of heating heat transfer coefficient
increased as flow increased and reached maximum value of 1083 (W/m.K) then
decreased but didn’t go back to its initial value but in part of no heating it was
nearly constant which means that heat transfer coefficient is strongly dependent on
temperature difference.

1
Results and discussions:
part 1 without heating:
13
12.5
12 11.7

11.5 11.1
11.7
11 10.5
10.5 10 10.8
height (cm)

10
9.5 9.1 10

9 9.5
8.3
8.5 8.8
increasing flow
8
7.4 decreasing flow
7.5 7 7.1 7.2
7 7 7
7.6
7
6.5 6.8 6.8 6.8 6.8 6.8 6.8 6.9
6
2.3 4.3 6.3 8.3 10.3 12.3 14.3 16.3
operation velocity (cm/s)

Figure 1: operation velocity versus height stage 1 without heating.

As shown in the above figure (figure 1) at the beginning of the process the height of packed
material remains constant at height 6.8 cm which means the drag force exerts on it insufficient to
pull it up, this stage known as fixed bed, as the flow increases the height of alumina increases,
and starts to rise by appearance of bubbles at a velocity of 6.9 cm/s ,this increase in alumina
height due to drag force which became more than gravity force and this called a bubbling stage.
it was expected that two curves to cross each other at point of minimum fluidization velocity
then goes identically in straight line, but that didn’t happen which means there are some errors
specially in collecting data in lab that we couldn’t read the real value of bed on the roller because
the alumina was moving up and down. there for, we can’t find the minimum fluidization
graphically, so we need to calculate it by correlations.
Hight of alumina reaches a maximum value of 11.7 cm. whereas reached 13.2 cm in part 2. As
noticed in the graph as the flow decreases the height of alumina decreases but it doesn’t go back
to its initial value owing to disorder in the alumina caused by air which increases the voidage
between particles.

2
 12
10.6 10.6 10.6 10.6 10.7
10 10.2
10 10.6 10.6 10.6 10.6 10.7
9
10
9.5
Pressure drop (cm H2O)

8 7.4
8.2
6
6 6.7 increasing
4.5
5.4 decreasing
4 3.2
3.9

2 1.4 2.7

1.4
0
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
operation velocity (cm/s)

Figure 2: pressure drop VS. velocity

Figure 2 above shows the relationship between pressure drop across the bed and air flow
(velocity) , the pressure drop increases with increasing air flow nearly in straight line then it
becomes constant with value of 10.6 cm H2O at point of minimum fluidization velocity of 11.55
cm/s , the pressure becomes constant because the drag force cable to hold up all particle so there
aren’t any forces against drag force. As expected, two curves lie on each other in constant
pressure which means we reaches a fluidization stage the desirable stage. By decreasing flow
rate pressure drop it goes back constantly then decreases to its initial value and its curve is below
increasing curve which like as graph shown in textbook [1].
Minimum fluidization velocity according to Yu and Wen correlation was 0.04cm/s and the
velocity calculated by Leva’s correlation was 0.07 cm/s which is completely different from result
obtained from the graph, but for sure the result obtained by two correlation aren’t true that we
didn’t operated at these velocities because the Yu and Wen is valid only when (DP> 100 µm).
It’s expected that when particle size increases the minimum fluidization decreases because the
voidage between particles increases which air penetrates it faster, also with increasing
temperature through the bed we reach minimum fluidization faster.

3
Part 2 with heating:

with heating 1083.333333

heat transfer coefficient (W/m.K)

1020
without heating
820

620

482.421875
420 431.640625
325
220 237.5 229.6195652

20
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
air velocity (cm/s)

Figure 3: relationship between air velocity and heat transfer coefficient.

As shown in (figure 3) above its considerable that the heat transfer coefficient (h) is increasing as
air velocity increases in present of driving force (temp. difference between surface of heater and
bed ) which causes by supplied power, h increased gradually then decreased a bit afterward it
increased sharply to reach its maximum value 1083.3 at velocity of 11.55 cm/s which is the
minimum fluidization velocity obtained in part 1, then decreased sharply but it never reach its
initial value.
As said before the most effective parameter for this increases in h is due temperature difference,
this factor effect appear in the behavior of h in part of no heating, we noticed it’s not change with
change if air velocity nearly about 650 (W/m.K) except some points, these bits changes
happened because of the light lamp fixed on the board which gives heat able to change the value
of h.
During the experiment we noticed that the bubbles in part 2 (with heating) appears faster than
part 1 (without heating) which means the fluidization stage reached in part 2 faster than 1 that
gives an advantage for using heat transfer to accelerate fluidization process but take in
consideration the cost effect. Also, the highest height reached in part 2 which emphasizes the
advantageous of heating.
The calculated value for h based on Zebrowski’s equation is 1018 (W/m.K) which is close to
maximum value estimated from the graph.

4
Conclusions:
 Fluidization happens in three stages, fixed bed which is first stage at the low flowrate,
bubbling stage is a transition stage begins when bubbles appear, fluidization stage is the
final and desirable stage.
 The height of bed increases as velocity increases (air flow) and decrease as it decreases
but it doesn’t go back to its initial value.
 Pressure drop increases as flow increase the becomes constant and both curve cross and
lie on each other at constant value, decreases as flow decreases to its initial value.
 Bubbling stage was reached in part 2 faster than part1 and in part 2 reached the highest
elevation.
 Minimum fluidization velocity obtained for the experiment is different from those
calculated by correlations.
 Heat transfer coefficient remains constant as velocity increases.
 Heat transfer coefficient increases by increasing velocity in case of present temperature
difference between surface of heater and bed.
 Fluidization in present of heating source is faster than other one without heating.

5
Recommendation:

 Switch off light lamp fixed on board and use another one out of board.
 Use different particle size to study effect of particle size on fluidization parameters.

6
Appendices:
increasing
without heating

Air flowrate 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4
(L/s)
Surface heater 48 49 49 49 49 49 49 49 48 48 48 48 48
temp. [T1] (C)
Air inlet temp. 40 40 40 40 40 40 39 39 39 39 39 38 39
[T2] (C)
Bed temp. [T3] 44 44 44 44 44 44 43 43 43 43 43 43 43
(C)
pressure drop 1.4 3.2 4.5 6 7.4 9 10 10.2 10.6 10.6 10.7 10.9 11
(cm H2O)
bed height (cm) 6.8 6.8 6.8 6.8 6.8 6.8 6.9 7.6 8.8 9.5 10 10.8 11.7

Decreasing without heating

Air flowrate (L/s) 1.4 1.3 1.2 1.1 1 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2

Surface heater 47 47 47 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48
temp. [T1] (C)
Air inlet temp. 39 39 39 39 39 39 39 40 40 40 40 40 40
[T2] (C)
Bed temp. [T3] (C) 43 43 43 43 43 43 43 43 44 44 44 44 44

pressure drop (cm 11.1 11 10.8 10.5 10.5 10 9.5 8.2 6.7 5.4 3.9 2.7 1.4
H2O)
bed height (cm) 11.7 11.1 10.5 10 9.1 8.3 7.4 7.2 7.1 7 7 7 7

7
increasing with heating

Air flowrate 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4
(L/s)

Surface 113 120 124 125 117 113 116 119 95 88 98 98 91

heater temp.
[T1] (C)
Air inlet 42 41 40 40 40 40 40 40 39 39 39 39 40
temp. [T2]
(C)
Bed temp. 45 45 59 61 62 67 66 65 71 56 56 52 59
[T3] (C)

pressure drop 2.4 4 6.8 8.7 10.4 9.4 9.8 10.1 10.7 10.8 11 11 11.2
(cm H2o)

bed height 6.6 6.6 6.6 6.6 6.8 7.9 8.5 9 10 11.5 11.7 12.5 13.2
(cm)

Decreasing with heating

Air flowrate 1.4 1.3 1.2 1.1 1 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2
(L/s)

Surface heater 97 95 97 98 97 104 112 120 133 131 123 136 131
temp. [T1] (C)

Air inlet temp. 41 40 40 41 41 41 41 39 41 42 42 41 42

[T2] (C)

Bed temp. 63 63 64 64 64 63 65 66 66 67 69 69 69
[T3] (C)

pressure drop 11.3 11.3 11.2 10.9 10.7 10.2 9.7 8.8 7.3 5.8 5.8 2.5 1.5
(cm H2o)

bed height 12.5 11.7 11.5 11 10.2 9.7 8.5 7.3 7.2 7.2 7.2 7.2 7.2
(cm)

8
Sample calculations:
Velocity= flowrate / cross sectional area
 V= 0.2 L /s 8.66 x10-3 = 2.31 cm/s

1

Re mf   33.7   0.0408
2 D3p p    g 2
  33.7
 2 

Re = [(33.7)2 +( 0.0408 *(17.7*10-6)3*1.225*9.8*(3770-1.225))/ (1.81*10-5)2]0.5 -33.7 =0.03

V= [ (1.81*10-5) * 0.03] / (17.7*10-6 * 1.225) = 0.03 cm/s

(  p   ) 0.94 g 0.94
1.82
D p1
 Vmf = 1.1  10 3

 0.06  0.88
Vmf = [1.1 x 10-3 x (17.7*10-6)1.82 (3770-1.225)0.94 (9.8)0.94]/ [1.2250.06 x (1.81x10-5)0.88] =0.07
cm/s

0.36
hpc,max  35.8 p k g Dp
0.2 0.6


hpc,max  35.8 * (3770)0.2 (0.024)0.6 (17.7 *10^6) 0.36 = 1018 (W/m.K)

where  p  density of solid particle, Kg/m

(3770 kg/m3 for fused Alumina)

Kg = thermal conductivity of gas= 0.024 W/m-K
Dp = mean particle size.

9
References:
[1] W.L. McCabe, J.C. Smith and P. Harriot, “Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering” 7th
Ed., McGraw-Hill, New York (2005).

10