Abstract
Fluidized bed has been widely used in many processes of petroleum, chemical and electric-power industries. In the bed, solid particles are fluidized by the flow of gas or/and liquid. The flow patterns in the bed are strongly affected by gravity-levels against drag forces. Minimum velocity for fluidization is one of the basic hydrodynamic characteristics of the bed. The behavior of a fluidized bed under various gravity-levels was observed using our high-gravity generator (1～10 g0). The effect of gravity-level on minimum fluidization velocity of a two-dimensional gas-solid fluidized bed was investigated. The experimental results were compared with previous works under normal gravity-level. For some kinds of particles categorized in group-A of the Geldart map under normal gravity-level, the values of minimum fluidization velocity approached those of minimum bubbling fluidization velocity as gravity level was higher. The experimental data of minimum fluidization velocity versus gravity-level (4.8＜Ar＜875) was in good agreement with the correlations which have been proposed for the data under normal gravity-level.
