Experimental Study of the Mixing and Segregation Behavior in Binary Particle Fluidized Bed with Wide Size Distributions

Detailed understanding the particle mixing and segregation dynamic is essential in successfully designing and reasonably operating multicomponent fluidized bed. In this work, a novel fluorescent tracer technique combining image processing method has been used to investigate the mixing and segregation behavior in a binary fluidized bed with wide size distributions. The particle number percentage in each layer for different gas velocities is obtained by an image processing method. Fluidization, mixing and segregation behavior has been discussed in terms of bed pressure drop, gas velocity and mixing index. Different types of binary particle systems, including the jetsam and the flotsam-rich system, are analyzed and compared. The mixing indexes at different minimum fluidization velocities are also analyzed and compared with other work. The results show that the theoretical minimum fluidization velocity calculated from the bed pressure drop cannot represent the whole fluidization for a wide size distribution binary particle system. The effect of a wide size distribution is an inflection point in the mixing index curve. There is also a dead region in the bottom of the bed that consists of particles with large size and a low degree of sphericity. The particles in the dead region are extraordinarily difficult to fluidize and should be considered in the design of fluidized beds in industrial applications.