Experimental study on flow characterization of a rectangular spouted bed by image processing

Systematic image processing methods are applied to characterize gas-solid flow under different operating conditions in a 30.2 mm x 101.6 mm rectangular spouted bed. Geldart D particles are imaged using a high-speed video camera. Superficial gas velocity, initial bed height, and nozzle size are investigated as influence factors. By applying adaptive thresholding and logical operation to the video frames, the original color images are transformed into binary images exposing detailed boundary information. By analyzing the binary image using a self-developed algorithm in combination with mask operations, the bed height is successfully determined, through which the variation of the bed expansion ratio with superficial gas velocity can be obtained. The application of image morphological operations, i.e. dilation and erosion on the binarized images ensures the accurate identification of the contours of the jet and fountain so that the jet and fountain heights can be determined. Based on the image processing methods, the variation of bed expansion ratio, jet height and fountain height with the three influence factors are discussed. The current study highlights the application of image analysis in investigating the flow characterization and obtaining more hydrodynamic information in a rectangular spouted bed. Published by Elsevier B.V.