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to Fluidized Beds
I n order to determine the nature of the resistance controlling heat transfer between fluidized beds and surfaces in
contact with them, heat transfer measurements were made on the same solid constituents with several different fluidizing gases.
The heat transfer coefficients obtained with fluidized beds are found to be proportional to the square root of the thermal con-
ductivity of the quiescent beds. This result indicates that the process controlling fluidized heat transfer may be considered to
be an unsteady-state diffusion of heat into mobile elements of quiescent bed material.
This picture is analyzed mathematically to yield an equation for the heat transfer coefficient h = .\/ K~ pm c S wherein
the effects of the bed thermal properties are separated from the effects of the stirring factor S, which accounts for bed motion
and geometry. The mass transfer analogue is also derived and shown to correlate existing mass and heat transfer data reason-
ably well.
I t is concluded that the proposed mechanism yields a satisfactory picture of the fluidized heat transfer process and
may provide the beginnings of a rational approach to the correlation and prediction of fluidized heat transfer in engineering
work.
Heat transfer coefficients of up tumbling mixtures of solids and tions of all these individual con-
to 300 B.t.u.i(hr.1 (sq.ft.) (OF.) upward-moving gas-filled spaces. ductive and convective mechanisms.
have been reported(8) for fluid- Knowledge of the heat-transfer heat is transferred from the sur-
ized beds and surfaces in contact mechanism should be of consider- face and into the core of the bed.
with them; values in the range of able aid in the development of The difficulty with this mode of
40 to 120 B.t.u./ (hr.) (sq.ft.) ( O F . ) trustworthy design procedures f o r depicting the heat transfer process
a r e common. Such coefficients a r e these beds. is that while the picture is almost
many times higher than those nor- certainly correct, i t is so compli-
mally encountered with packed DEVELOPMENT OF A MODEL cated as to be quantitatively un-
beds or with flowing gases, and the As a first step in developing a manageable. The need f o r t h e crea-
resulting ease of heat transfer is picture of the mechanism of fluid- tion of a manageable model is the
one of the factors favoring the ized heat transfer, i t is to be noted justification for t h e following dis-
incorporation of fluidization into that a t any time in a fluidized sys- cussion.
industrial processes. Despite t h e tem which is in contact with a Bauer ( 2 ) found evidence that
many successful commercial appli- surface hotter or colder than the the dense phase of bubbling beds
cations of fluidization, the nature bed, transitory solid-solid, solid- retained a constant void fraction
of the heat-transfer process has surface, gas-solid, and gas-surface independent of superficial gas
remained obscure. The present in- contacts a r e all occurring, with in- velocity and t h a t this void fraction
vestigation represents an attempt terconduction of heat to be ex- was essentially that of quiescence.
to delineate the mechanism of heat pected from each such contact. The Furthermore, his data f o r uniform
transfer in bubbling beds, i.e., complicated, irregular motions of glass spheres indicate that the void
dense-phase, aggregative beds in solids and gas are constantly mak- fraction of quiescence was 0.41.
the absence of slugging or severe ing and destroying the individual This value may be compared with
channeling. Such beds a r e a type contacts, and these motions create the theoretical void fractions for
commonly desired for industrial the means f o r a convective trans- spheres packed in cubic and hexa-
applications and may be qualita- fer of heat via both media. By t h e gonal prism lattices: 0.475 and
tively described as inhomogeneous simultaneous and successive opera- 0.395, respectively. I n these two
(4)
Equation ( 3 ) may be succinctly
written as
ticular packet into contact with a ages ranging between T and T d T + where A represents the area of the
flat surface of temperature T I . Un- +
is ( 7 ) dr. The observed local aver- heat transfer surface. Combining
steady-state diffusion of heat into age coefficient will be due t o heat Equations (5) and ( 6 ) gives
by Dow and Jakob was due to Fig. 7. Heat transfer t o microspheres. Bed dimensions :
heater length, not bed depth. This Figure 6 ; solid properties: Table 1.
Side Mixing
Although slug flow of solid past
the surface may in some circum-
stances be the primary means by
which fresh solid is brought into
contact with a surface, there is
some evidence to indicate that with
large surfaces and highly turbu-
Fig. 8. Heat transfer t o glass beads. Bed dimensions: lent beds, sidewise transfer of solid
Figure 6 ; solid properties: Table 1. packets to the surfaces will have
a n important effect on the stirring
factor S.
This situation is pictured in
became controlled by the conduc- From these latter data i t wilI be Figure 5. Here, as before, the
tion of heat from t h e wall across seen that the principal resistance solid mass is flowing down past
the laminar layer of solid (now exists in the unsteady state dif- the surface, but as i t passes down-
the principal resistance) to the fusion of heat into the massed ward some of the solid a t the sur-
turbulent core of the bed. Although solid; independent effects of gas- face is exchanged with solid
this picture can certainly account and solid-layer conduction are brought in sideways from the core
for the heater-length effects found negligible. It is believed t h a t the of the bed. If s represents the
by these investigators, i t will be length effects found by Van Heer- average replacement of packets a t
shown that the data to be presented den et al. a r e due mainly to vari- the wall per unit time by means
here cannot be explained by it. ations attributable to the stirring of side mixing (i.e., if s = 0.01
sec.-I, during 1 see. solid covering
one hundreth of the heater area
will, on the average, be exchanged
by side mixing with fresh core
solid), it can be shown ( 4 ) that the
stirring factor S , is
XL= [ (
s 1 1 2 erf -
s-
f> , z )+
+( __
h:
exp (- (13)
p; 80
4
h When side mixing predominates
$ ( s L / v > > l ) , Equation (9) reduces
60 to
2
ee x, =s (14)
and from.Equation ( 5 )
0
.
0. 01 2 3 4 J 6 60.1 3 4 5 6 81.0 Equation (15) is believed to rep-
resent the usual condition where
SUPERF/C/AL A / R V E L O C l T Y , F T . PER SEC. transfer surfaces a r e large and the
vig. 9. Heat transfer from the heater probe t o a bed of microspheres. beds are turbulent. Values of S ,
Probe dimensions: Figure 10; solid properties: Table 1. (assumed to be s) obtained in the
RESULTS
RATIO OF GAS CONDUC?IVITY TO S O L I D CONOUCT/VlTY 1. Probably the m o s t significant
Fig. 12. Conductivities of beds of packed solids. Measured conductivities are result a p p e a r s when t h e heat trans-
shown correlated with Schumann-Voss relation. Quiescent conductivities were f e r coefficients o b t a i n e d w i t h the
obtained from plot by allowing f o r change of void fraction. various gases are c o m p a r e d w i t h