Bubbling fluidized bed characterization using Electrical Capacitance Volume Tomography (ECVT)

Understanding the fundamentals of gas–solid fluidized beds and, in general, multiphase flows has been a significant task since the conception of gas–solid fluidization and fluid particle systems. Various measurement techniques have been applied in an attempt to better understand the fundamentals of the complex gas–solid flow structures that form in fluidized beds. This information may potentially provide a better design, scale-up, and operation of these systems as well as lead to accurate performance predictions of multiphase flow systems. Electrical Capacitance Volume Tomography (ECVT) has now reached a point of development where these multiphase flow structures can be imaged accurately and reliably in three dimensions at good resolutions and sampling rates to provide significant insight into the internal gas–solid flow structures. A 10 cm ECVT sensor was used in order to investigate the bubble behavior of a 10 cm diameter bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) of 185 micron glass beads at various fluidization velocities. Three dimensional images of gas–solid flow structures as well as time average vertical and radial solid fraction profiles are presented in this paper, and average bubble diameter and bubble frequency are discussed and compared to various correlations available in the published literature.