(384e) Flow Regime Identification in a Fluidized Bed Using Gamma Ray Densitometry Technique

The identification of flow regimes becomes important as the beds exhibit different characteristics in different flow regimes. In these flow regimes or patterns, the interaction of the dispersed gas phase with the solids phase varies considerably and hence, different hydrodynamic characteristics result in different mixing as well as heat and mass transfer. Between bubbly and churn-turbulent flow regimes different hydrodynamic characteristics result in different mixing as well as heat and mass transfer rates in these flow regimes. Therefore, the identification of flow regimes becomes an important task that has led to considerable research efforts, which have resulted, into various experimental methods and empirical, semi-empirical, and mechanistic models to identify flow regime transition.

The main aim of the present work is to develop an online non-invasive technique using the gamma ray densitometry in order to identify flow regime transitions in fluidized bed reactor. It is commercially available and is being used in industries for level measurement and control. The successful implementation of such a technique on bubble columns (Shaikh, 2007) has been the inspiration behind this work. The present approach is an elementary work in identification of flow regimes and also to track different flow regimes in gas-solid fluidized beds