Experimental Study of Defluidization by Continuous Water Injection into a Gas-Solid Fluidized Bed Using Pressure Fluctuation Measurements

This work studies the induced defluidization condition of a gas-solid fluidized bed system when distilled water is continuously injected into the bed of particles. Experimental tests carried out to different water flow rates were analyzed through a technique based on pressure signals measurements. The bed material used was glass beads (Geldart D particles), with mean diameter of 1.55 mm. Experiments were performed in an acrylic Plexiglas tube with 0.11m in inner diameter and 1.0 m in height, with the bed led from an initially bubbling regime up to attain a fixed bed condition. Pressure fluctuations were acquired and processed using LabVIEW 10.0TMsoftware. Results showed that the defluidization condition promoted by water injection in a bubbling fluidized bed can be efficiently identified using pressure fluctuation measurements.