Magnetic resonance measurements of high-velocity particle motion in a three-dimensional gas-solid spouted bed

Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Velocity Mapping in Chemical Engineering Applications

This review aims to illustrate the diversity of measurements that can be made using magnetic resonance techniques, which have the potential to provide insights into chemical engineering systems that cannot readily be achieved using any other method. Perhaps the most notable advantage in using magnetic resonance methods is that both chemistry and transport can be followed in three dimensions, in optically opaque systems, and without the need for tracers to be introduced into the system. Here we focus on hydrodynamics and, in particular, applications to rheology, pipe flow, and fixed-bed and gas-solid fluidized bed reactors. With increasing development of industrially relevant sample environments and undersampling data acquisition strategies that can reduce acquisition times to <1 s, magnetic resonance is finding increasing application in chemical engineering research.

Effects of cohesion on the flow patterns of granular materials in spouted beds

Two-dimensional spouted bed, capable to provide both dilute granular gas and dense granular solid flow patterns in one system, was selected as a prototypical system for studying granular materials. Effects of liquid cohesion on such kind of complex granular patterns were studied using particle image velocimetry. It is seen that the addition of liquid oils by a small fraction of 10(-3)-10(-2) causes a remarkable narrowing (about 15%) of the spout area. In the dense annulus, as the liquid fraction increases, the downward particle velocity gradually decreases and approaches a minimum where, at a microscopic grain scale, the liquid bridge reaches spherical regimes with a maximum capillarity. Viscous lubrication effect is observed at a much higher fraction but is really weak with respect to the capillary effect. In the dilute spout, in contrast to the dry grains, the wet grains have a lightly smaller acceleration in the initial 1/3 of the spout, but have a dramatically higher acceleration in the rest of the spout. We attribute the former to the additional work needed to overcome interparticle cohesion during particle entrainment at the spout-annulus interface. Then, using mass and momentum balances, the latter is explained by the relative higher drag force resulting from both higher gas velocities and higher voidages due to spout narrowing in the wet system. The experimental findings will provide useful data for the validation of discrete element simulation of cohesive granular-fluid flows.