Abstract

This study presents a detailed experimental evaluation of a newly developed mechanistic scale-up methodology for gas-solid fluidized beds. Traditional scale-up approaches typically rely on matching global dimensionless groups, which often fail to ensure local hydrodynamic similarity. In contrast, the new mechanistic method aims to achieve scale-up by matching the radial profiles of gas holdup between geometrically similar beds at corresponding dimensionless axial positions (z/Dc). This approach is based on the premise that when gas holdup profiles align, other key hydrodynamic parameters—such as solids holdup and particle velocity—also become similar. To validate this methodology, experiments were conducted in two fluidized beds with inner diameters of 14 cm and 44 cm. Optical probes, and gamma ray densitometry (GRD) were used to measure local gas holdup, solids holdup, and particle velocity at multiple axial and radial positions. The results show that matched gas holdup profiles led to mean absolute deviations (MAD) below 3% in solids holdup and particle velocity, confirming hydrodynamic similarity. In contrast, unmatched profiles resulted in significant deviations across all parameters.

Department(s)

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Publication Status

Open Access

Keywords and Phrases

gamma ray densitometry (GRD); Gas-solid fluidized bed; hydrodynamics similarity; optical probe; scale-up

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1555-2578; 1555-256X

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Final Version

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2025 The Authors, All rights reserved.

Creative Commons Licensing

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2025

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