1.

Objectives

Investigate the effect of column diameter on the power required to fluidize a bed

of solid particles.
Calculate the theoretical power required to fluidize a bed of solid particles and

compare with experimentally determined values.

Determine graphically and through visual observation the minimum fluidization

velocity of solid particles packed in a cylindrical column.

Relate the power required for fluidization to the flow rate of the fluidizing
medium and the porosity of the bed.

2. Processed Data and Discussion

The first objective of the experiment is to investigate the effect of column diameter
on the power required to fluidize a bed of solid particles. The fluidization set-up used
in the experiment includes two vertical columns of equal height but different column
widths or inner diameters. Each column contains a packed bed of spherical solid
particles of constant height and the fluid used to fluidize the packed bed is water.
2.60
2.40
2.20
2.00

Trial 1 @ 27.5C

log (-P) 1.80

Trial 2 @ 32.0C

1.60

Trial 4 @ 32.0C

Trial 3 @ 34.0C
Trial 5 @ 33.0C

1.40
1.20
0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00
log v0

Figure 1. log (-P) vs log v0 of the fluidization of packed bed of spherical solid particles with
water in a column of 35 mm inner diameter at various temperatures.

2.10
1.90

1.70
1.50
log (-P)

1.30
Trial 1 @ 32.0C

1.10

Trial 2 @ 32.5C

0.90
0.70
0.50
0.00

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50

log v0

Figure 2. log (-P) vs log v0 of the fluidization of packed bed of spherical solid particles with
water in a column of 59 mm inner diameter at various temperatures.

The graphs show the pressure drop in log(-P) as affected by the superficial
velocity (log vo). The point of incipient fluidization has the minimum fluidization
velocity and is labelled as point C.
At point C, the column with the smaller diameter has a greater pressure drop of
33,479.73 Pa compared to the pressure drop of the bigger diameter (12,159.14 Pa).
Moreover, the smaller column has a greater minimum fluid velocity at point C than
that of the bigger column. This shows that a vertical column with a larger diameter
requires more power to fluidize the bed of solid particles of the same bed height as
that of a narrower column. This is because a wider column means more solid particle
mass, so more force is needed to lift the solid particles in order to fluidize the bed.

(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Figure 3. Packed bed of solid particles in the smaller column (a) at initial bed height, (b) at
minimum fluidization, (c) upon further expansion of fluidized bed, and (d) expanding at
maximum water velocity.

(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Figure 4. Packed bed of solid particles in the bigger column (a) at initial bed height, (b) at
minimum fluidization, and (c) upon further expansion of fluidized bed, and (d) expanding at
maximum allowable water flow rate.

The minimum fluid velocity as depicted by the pictures has an increased bed height,
although it is only a small increase (about 1 cm for the big column). Upon further
expansion of the fluidized bed, the porosity of the bed becomes more evident. The packed
bed of solid particles in the smaller column has a larger expansion than that of the bigger
column at the same fluid velocity. This also proves that the bigger column requires more
power in order to fluidize and expand the solid particles.

The minimum fluidization velocity can be calculated from the quadratic equation:

2
150 V 0 M (1 M ) 1.75 V 0 M 1
+
=g ( p )
2 2
3
s D p 3M
s D p
M

(
0)

where:

V 0 M

minimum fluidization velocity,

m/s
viscosity of water, kg/m.s

sphericity of solid particles

Dp

diameter of solid particles, m

void fraction at minimum

fluidization

acceleration due to gravity, m/s2

density of solid particles, kg/m3

density of water, kg/m3

From Appendix A.2 in Geankoplis, the density and viscosity of water at 32C are
994.005 kg/m3 and 0.7679x10-3 kg/m.s, respectively. The sphericity of the solid particles
is 1 with a spherical diameter of 5.80 mm. The density of the solid particles to be used in
the experiment is 7502.401 kg/m3 and the void fraction is 0.4444 as measured before the
start of the experiment. The minimum porosity is the void fraction of the bed at minimum
fluid velocity and may be approximated using an equation by Wen and Yu
1
3
s M
14
The minimum porosity obtained from the above equation is 0.4149. This value cannot
be used because it is lower than that of the porosity of the packed bed (=0.4444). The
minimum porosity should be greater as it indicates the void fraction of the fluidized bed
which is expected to be expanded. However, the minimum porosity for roughly spherical
particles is generally between 0.40 and 0.45 (McCabe, 1993). So a value of 0.45 for the
minimum porosity will be assumed.
The minimum fluid velocity as calculated from equation (1) is 0.1361 m/s.
The pressure drop (-P) across the whole column can be calculated using the
following equations:

 P P1P2
1
=
=g ( h2h1 ) + ( v 22v 21 ) + E fr ,bed + F f

(0)

Efr , bed =

L
1 170 ( 1 )
+1.75 0 V 20 M

Dp
V 0M Dp

(0)

F f =4 f

2
L V 0 M
D 2

(0)

[(

f =0.0001375 1+ 20,000

N =

)]

(0)

6 1
3

10
+
D N

D V 0 M

(0)

The first term on the right hand side of equation 2 refers to the mechanical energy
from the height difference (h is the height travelled by the water). The variable v is the
bulk fluid velocity, Efr,bed is the amount of mechanical energy dissipated due to the friction
between the fluid and the bed of particles, and F f is the amount of energy dissipated from
wall friction.
The power required for fluidization is the pressure drop multiplied by the volumetric
flowrate of the fluid and the cross-sectional area of the column. The power requirement is
then calculated from
Power ( W )= P V 0 M A

(0)

where A is the cross-sectional area of the column.

theoretical
values
D (m)

small column
0.035

big column
0.059
0.1361

NRe
f

0.1361
6172.22
0.000888

Ff (m2/s2)

0.000879

10404.60
0.000768
0.000451

0.6618

0.6618

9853.56
1.29

9853.13
3.67

V0M (m/s)

Efr,bed (m2/s2)
-P (Pa)
Power (W)
experimental
values

V0M (m/s)
0.0794
0.1778
33479.73
-P (Pa)
12159.14
2.56
5.91
Power (W)
Table 1. Theoretical and experimental values of the minimum fluid velocity, pressure drop and
power requirement for both columns.

The above equations yield a pressure drop of 9853.56 Pa for the smaller column and
9853.13 Pa for the bigger column. The very small difference is contributed by the fanning
friction factor.
For the smaller column, the theoretical power requirement is 1.29 W while the actual
power needed in the experiment was 2.56 W. Similarly, the theoretical power requirement
for the bigger column is lesser (3.67 W) than that of the actual power requirement (5.91
W). The theoretical values are lower than the actual since the calculations for the
theoretical value is simplified and did not include other factors such as friction losses
from the piping system of the fluidization set-up that may have affected the actual power
requirement.
3. Appendices
Data for average size of solid particles
samp
diameter
samp
diameter
le
(mm)
le
(mm)
average density:
1
11
5.80
5.70
0.0075
3
2
5.80
12
5.80
(g/mm )=
3
13
5.85
5.85
7502.40
3
(kg/m )= 5.75
1
4
14
5.85
5
5.90
15
5.70
6
5.80
16
5.85
Data
7 for %void
5.80of packed
17bed of solid
5.80
particles
8
5.80
18
5.80
V
40
water (mL)
9
5.85
19
5.80
90
10 Vwater+particles
5.80 (mL) 20
5.80
Vparticles (mL)

50

%void
44.4444

0.4444
Data for average mass of solid particle
sample
1
2

mass (g)
0.2059
0.1893

3
average

0.1998
0.1983

sampl
e
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
avera
ge

diameter
(mm)
5.75
5.80
5.75
5.75
5.85
5.80
5.80
5.80
5.80
5.85
5.80

Data for small column

Trial 1
Numb
er
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

Trial 2
Numb
er
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

T (C)= 27.5
flowrate
(mL/s)

P
(cmHg)

-P
(mmHg)

29.94
32.17
57.80
52.44
60.45
70.27
86.81
146.15
148.39
133.75
162.50
238.89
252.75
257.94
256.21
273.55

-0.9
-0.9
-1.6
-1.8
-1.9
-2.1
-2.2
-3.3
-4.1
-4.1
-4.3
-6.4
-8.7
-25.7
-29.4
-30.4

9
9
16
18
19
21
22
33
41
41
43
64
87
257
294
304

vo
(mm/s
)
31.12
33.43
60.07
54.50
62.83
73.04
90.23
151.91
154.23
139.02
168.90
248.30
262.70
268.09
266.30
284.33

log (P)
0.95
0.95
1.20
1.26
1.28
1.32
1.34
1.52
1.61
1.61
1.63
1.81
1.94
2.41
2.47
2.48

T (C)= 32.0
flowrate
(mL/s)

P
(cmHg)

-P
(mmHg)

37.37
59.81
97.65
131.15
137.50
135.17
134.78
142.14
156.00
175.71
164.22

-2.1
-2.9
-3.7
-4.8
-5.0
-5.2
-5.2
-5.4
-5.5
-6.4
-6.8

21
29
37
48
50
52
52
54
55
64
68

vo
(mm/s
)
38.85
62.17
101.49
136.31
142.91
140.50
140.09
147.74
162.14
182.63
170.69

log (P)
1.32
1.46
1.57
1.68
1.70
1.72
1.72
1.73
1.74
1.81
1.83

12
13
14
15
16
17

Trial 3
Numb
er
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Trial 4
Numb
er
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

192.97
230.56
251.49
258.02
253.93
143.01

-7.2
-8.2
-13.8
-18.9
-20.2
-30.7

72
82
138
189
202
307

200.57
239.63
261.39
268.19
263.93
148.64

1.86
1.91
2.14
2.28
2.31
2.49

T (C)= 34.0
flowrate
(mL/s)

P
(cmHg)

-P
(mmHg)

17.71
58.36
96.60
138.74
137.38
136.04
157.75
185.35
237.04
239.85

-1.4
-2.2
-3.0
-4.2
-4.4
-4.8
-5.2
-6.8
-8.6
-28.2

14
22
30
42
44
48
52
68
86
282

vo
(mm/s
)
18.41
60.66
100.41
144.20
142.79
141.39
163.96
192.65
246.37
249.29

log (P)
1.15
1.34
1.48
1.62
1.64
1.68
1.72
1.83
1.93
2.45

T (C)= 32.0
flowrate
(mL/s)

P
(cmHg)

-P
(mmHg)

47.10
85.98
124.03
136.63
133.77
133.86
152.46
167.38
244.52
255.00

-1.8
-2.8
-4.2
-4.4
-4.4
-4.6
-5.3
-6.5
-8.8
-30.3

18
28
42
44
44
46
53
65
88
303

vo
(mm/s
)
48.96
89.37
128.92
142.01
139.04
139.14
158.46
173.97
254.14
265.04

log (P)
1.26
1.45
1.62
1.64
1.64
1.66
1.72
1.81
1.94
2.48

Trial 5
Numb
er
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

T (C)= 33.0
flowrate
(mL/s)

P
(cmHg)

-P
(mmHg)

17.47
49.31
111.49
126.09
128.38
139.45
207.38
204.69
221.49
237.40
231.94

-1.5
-2.2
-3.9
-4.8
-5.2
-5.0
-9.1
-10.0
-11.0
-29.2
-30.2

15
22
39
48
52
50
91
100
110
292
302

vo
(mm/s
)
18.15
51.25
115.88
131.05
133.43
144.94
215.55
212.75
230.21
246.75
241.08

log (P)
1.18
1.34
1.59
1.68
1.72
1.70
1.96
2.00
2.04
2.47
2.48

Data for bigger column

Trial 1
Numb
er
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Trial 2
Numb
er
1

T (C)= 32.0
flowrate
(mL/s)

P
(cmHg)

-P
(mmHg)

39.26
92.50
126.67
131.13
151.74
248.36
243.75

-0.3
-2.7
-4.0
-4.9
-6.5
-16.8
-20.4

3
27
40
49
65
168
204

vo
(mm/s
)
14.36
33.83
46.33
47.96
55.50
90.84
89.16

log (P)
0.48
1.43
1.60
1.69
1.81
2.23
2.31

T (C)= 32.5
flowrate
(mL/s)

P
(cmHg)

-P
(mmHg)

11.34

-0.3

vo
(mm/s
)
4.15

log (P)
0.48

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

107.56
119.57
122.00
131.68
126.58
133.70
137.50
143.92
146.24
178.68
223.84
233.98
271.67
247.37
259.18

-4.4
-5.3
-5.5
-5.8
-6.2
-5.8
-6.2
-6.6
-7.3
-9.4
-13.6
-15.3
-16.9
-18.2
-18.7

44
53
55
58
62
58
62
66
73
94
136
153
169
182
187

39.34
43.73
44.62
48.17
46.30
48.90
50.29
52.64
53.49
65.35
81.87
85.58
99.37
90.48
94.80

1.64
1.72
1.74
1.76
1.79
1.76
1.79
1.82
1.86
1.97
2.13
2.18
2.23
2.26
2.27

4. References
Geankoplis, C. J. (2003). Principles of Transport Processes and Separation
Processes. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
McCabe, W. L. (1993). Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering. New York:
McGraw-Hill, Inc.