Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.37, No.4, 1499-1509, 1998
Flow characteristics of coal ash in a circulating fluidized bed
Solids flow characteristics of coal ash are investigated with the measurement of the local solids flux, local solids concentration, and spatial distribution of particle size. Two sets of the solids sampling probe are used to quantify the local solids flux at different radial and axial locations. The macroscopic flow structure is presented by analyzing the radial profiles of solids flux and the local particle size distributions, while the mesoscale flow structure is illustrated on the basis of probability density function of instantaneous solids concentration, the intermittency index, and the cluster frequency. It is found that both macroscopic and mesoscopic structures of gas-solid flow of coal ash are different from those of commonly studied fluid catalytic cracking and sand particles. The differences include higher upward and downward solids fluxes in the lower dense region, significant particle segregation, and more uniform annular flow. Furthermore, a semiempirical model taking into consideration the higher slip velocity between gas and solids is developed to account for the radial profiles of the solids flux in the upper dilute region of the riser.
Keywords:PNEUMATIC TRANSPORT BED;PARTICLES;BEHAVIOR;VELOCITY;PROFILES;POWDERS;VOIDAGE;REGIMES;RISERS;FINE