Development of an endoscopic-laser PIV/DIA technique for high-temperature gas–solid fluidized beds

• A novel non-invasive experimental technique has been developed and validated.
• To allow high T operations the PIV is carried out with endoscopes and lasers.
• Hydrodynamics of fluidized beds can be studied at high T and under reactive conditions.
• First tests show interesting effects of temperature on hydrodynamics.

To enable the investigation of the hydrodynamics of gas–solid fluidized bed reactors at high-temperatures and reactive conditions, a new non-invasive experimental technique has been developed, based on the extension of Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) coupled with Digital Image Analysis (DIA) using dedicated high-temperature endoscopes for image recording and laser illumination. The new endoscopic-laser PIV/DIA technique (ePIV/DIA) allows to determine simultaneously information from the emulsion and bubble phase with high spatial and temporal resolution in a pseudo-2D columns.The ePIV/DIA technique with single-source laser illumination has first been thoroughly validated at cold-flow conditions by comparison with a standard PIV/DIA technique with LED-illumination, showing very good agreement of the results in terms of particle velocity and solids mass flux profiles. The technique has subsequently been applied to fluidized beds in the bubbling fluidization regime at elevated temperatures to demonstrate its unique possibilities to measure detailed bed hydrodynamics at elevated temperatures.

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