INVESTIGATION OF PARTICLE MOTION IN A SWIRLING FLUIDIZED BED USING PARTICLE TRACKING VELOCIMETRY

Fluidized bed is a technology which allows a bed of solid particles to be fluidized. It has a wide array of industrial application such as combustion or gasification of biomass, metal coating and solid drying. In order to further enhance the technology, a new type of fluidized bed called swirling fluidized bed (SFB) was introduced for which it has overcome the drawbacks existed in conventional fluidized bed such as low particle usage range, slow fluidization process and particle elutriation. SFB however is relatively a new type of invention and not fully utilise in industrial world. One of the reasons is due to the lack of research been done on it. One of the aspects concerned is the particle motion inside SFB of which no clear research has been done upon. Hence, this project will study the effect of particle motion inside the SFB when subjected to three different variables; namely blade angle, blade inclination angle and particle density