Experimental studies of dilute vertical pneumatic transport

Dilute vertical pneumatic transport has been studied by using the experimental techniques LDA and PIV. LDA and PIV are two different techniques, but they are both common methods used to gain a better understanding of gas/particle multiphase flows. A comparison between the two methods has been performed. The main focus of this study was an experimental LDA investigation of ZrO2 particles and glass beads. The particles have approximately the same particle size distribution but different densities. The superficial gas velocity and the particle loading have also been varied in the experiments. The effects of superficial gas velocity, particle loading, and particle density on the particle mean velocities, particle u-rms, particle v-rms, and particle cross-moment were investigated. From the experimental investigation it was found that the axial particle velocities showed a dependence on the particle volume fraction for the ZrO2 particles. It was also observed that the axial fluctuations decreased for both glass and ZrO2 particles when the particle volume fraction increased The axial fluctuations measured for the glass beads were higher than the fluctuations measured for the ZrO2 particles. The mean axial particle velocity measured by LDA and PIV showed good agreement.