Developing a High Speed Fiber-optic Endoscopic Technique for Measuring Particle Phase Characteristics in a Spouted Bed

A novel endoscopic photography technique coupling a high speed CCD camera and an intrusive fiber-optic endoscope has been extended to enable the investigation of particle flow behavior in a 3D spouted bed 1500 mm in height and 200 mm in diameter. A series of algorithms have been specifically optimized to realize the process of image processing and the calculation of the instantaneous particle velocity data. Then particle phase velocity and granular temperature were obtained respectively by statistical analysis and detailed study of the obtained data. The results showed that instantaneous particle velocities exhibited random complexity in both magnitude and direction. Although little information could be extracted from the raw data directly, the profile of particle phase velocity was able to show the mainstream particle flow patters along bed radius. Also, the computed granular temperature could be used to characterize the local particle fluctuation intensity. All experimental results could be useful to validate the CFD models for gas-solid flow systems.