Authors: Sina Tebianian a, Kristian Dubrawski a, Naoko Ellis a, Ray A. Cocco b, Roy Hays b, S.B. Reddy Karri b, Thomas W. Leadbeater c, David J. Parker c, Jamal Chaouki d, Rouzbeh Jafari d, Pablo Garcia-Trinanes e, Jonathan P.K. Seville e, John R. Grace a
a Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z3
b Particulate Solid Research, Inc. (PSRI), Chicago, IL 60632, United States
c Positron Imaging Centre, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
d Département de génie chimique, Ecole Polytechnique, Montréal, QC, Canada H3T 1J4
e Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH, UK
Source: This paper was published in Chemical Engineering Science.
Abstract: The novel traveling fluidization column, designed and built to assure identical operating conditions, was deployed to compare alternate experimental measurement techniques for hydrodynamic characterization of gas-fluidized beds. This paper compares measurements of particle velocity obtained by radioactive particle tracking (RPT—non-invasive at the Ecole Polytechnique), positron emission particle tracking (PEPT—non-invasive at University of Birmingham), optical fibre probes (invasive at UBC) and borescopic high speed particle image velocimetry (invasive at PSRI) carried out with FCC particles of mean diameter 107 μm. All of the techniques provided similar trends with respect to time-average particle velocity profiles, but significant differences were observed in some cases. Analysis of the results, focusing on the physical principles of each measurement technique, provides valuable insights into the reasons for the observed discrepancies. The results also add to a unique hydrodynamic database for validation of CFD and other mechanistic models.