Chapter 7 FLOW IN

FLUIDIZED BEDS

I. THE FLUIDIZED STATE

Suppose we progressively increase the velocity of fluid which is flowing

upward through a batch of solids. The frictional resistance increases, and
eventually a point is reached where the resistance just equals the weight of
solids. At this point the solids become suspended-in other words, they

FIXED M I NIMUM SMOOTH LIQUIO

BED FLU IDIZATION FLUIDIZATION FLUIDIZATION

Fig. 7.1 . Transition from a packed to a fluidized bed as the velocity of upflowing fluid is raised.
Note that the volume of solids in the vessel is

141

O. Levenspiel, Engineering Flow and Heat Exchange

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 1998
142 Chapter 7 / FLOW IN FLUIDIZED BEDS

l!. ,-- the Ergu" equation for

i't
fr \' packed beds continues upward
eqs. (7-4)- (7-9) \ "
give U..F eq.(7.l) givestl.PFr,Fluidize4
c;::;: ---
"
AA--2-L...--
l!.pFr.Fluidi.,q : the Auidized bed curve
I breaks away from -the.
Ergun equatlan when
(calCulated)
\ fric.tion
(bed
packed)- weight
)

~--~-----+----~-uo

Fig. 7.2. Frictiona1loss in the packed and in the fluidized state.

become "fluidized" -and the superficial velocity of fluid needed to just

fluidize the solids is called the minimum fluidizing velocity umf • As the flow
rate of fluid is increased beyond this point a liquid fluidized bed keeps
expanding, while a gas bed expands only slightly. This progression is shown
in Fig. 7.1. The fluidized state has many desirable liquidlike properties. For
example, we can easily move solids about just by pumping or by gravity
flow.
The progression from packed bed to fluidized bed is best followed on a
pressure drop vs. velocity graph, as shown in Figs. 7.2 and 7.3. The packed
bed behavior, shown on the left of these figures is reasonably represented by
the Ergun equation (6.9)

fl
Pfr
=
Pg
~F = 150 (1 - e)2 p.uoL + 1.75 1 - e pg u5L
gc e
3 d2p eg e3 dp [:2 = pal
(7.1)

paC:ked- - fluidiZ'ed -
1
solids are carried
~ out of the bed.
logtl.ptr A entrained by tile 80S
di fferent curves
becausQ of different voidages

terminal velocity of solids.

or wilen individual particles
are just suspended by the gps
~------+-------------~~
log u.

Fig. 7.3. The pressure drop vs. velocity curve in more detail and on log-log coordinates.