Experimental study on the motion of solids around an isolated bubble rising in a vertically vibrated fluidized bed

The motion of solids around isolated bubbles rising in a vertically vibrated pseudo-2D bed is experimentally studied in this work by combining Digital Image Analysis (DIA) and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The bed material is Geldart B spherical particles. Different vibration amplitudes and frequencies are applied to the bed vessel while the bed is fluidized with air at minimum fludization conditions and isolated bubbles are sequentially injected in the bed. An averaging of bubbles method is presented and used to statistically characterize the average motion of solids around the bubbles. The results show that the presence of a bubble in the system perturbs the cyclic compression and expansion behavior of the bed bulk and, in particular, influences the velocity of the expansion wave front traveling upwards the bed. Analogously, the motion of solids around the bubble and, specially, in the bubble wake region, are strongly affected by the cyclic compression and expansion of the bed bulk. However, direct comparisons of the experimental results with the Davidson & Harrison potential flow model reveal that this model is still applicable for the prediction of the solids velocity around the bubble in a vertically vibrated fluidized bed. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.