Abstract
Thermal conduction and motion of air bubbles in packed bed of polystyrene particles during external heating have been investigated experimentally. The packed bed was consisted of a cylindrical glass vessel and polystyrene particles. The external heating rate varied from 50K/h to 500K/h. The setting temperature was 523K. The initial porosity of the packed bed was 0.41. The higher the external heating rate made the more the temperature difference along radius direction of the vessel and made the bigger the bubbles of air in the molten packed bed. Furthermore, it was observed that the bubbles moved upward with decreasing their sizes at steady state.
