Investigation into the hydrodynamics of liquid-solid inclined micro-fluidized beds

The inclined micro-fluidized bed (MFB) can enhance heat and mass transfer rates compared to the vertically aligned counterparts, but the increased significance of surface forces and wall effects may cause poor fluidization performance. In this paper, the effects of column inclination and different particle-to-bed ratios (d_P/d_B) on the solid hydrodynamics are investigated in an inclined micro-fluidized bed. The results validated the suitability of using the Ergun equation to predict minimum fluidization velocities due to small deviations between 1.01 and 1.81 times the theoretical values, for a particle-to-bed ratio ranging from 0.025 to 0.165 at inclinations between 0° and 10°. Investigation into the effects on bed expansion behavior showed that the bed contracted with an increase in bed inclination. An unexpected observation during the bed expansion was the appearance of a secondary high voidage region and the appearance of strong circulation patterns with an increase in bed inclination. A detailed analysis of this phenomenon suggested the presence of a critical angle at 6° and 10° for the 85 µm particles, 4 × 4 mm bed cross-section and 165 µm particles, 1 × 1 mm bed cross-section, respectively. However, the liquid-solid back-mixing was observed due to the modified particle trajectories resulted in the disappearance of the high voidage region. This paper gives new insights into the micro-fluidization behavior in inclined beds thus contributing to the development of micro-fluidized beds and their future applications.