Experimental Study of an upflow Fluidized Bed: Identification of Fluidization Regimes

The concept of solar receiver using fluidized particles as heat transfer fluid is attractive from the point of view of its performance but also of the material used. In this concept, the receiver is composed of tubes subjected to concentrated solar radiation in which the fluidized particles circulate vertically. Circulation in the tubes, immersed in a “nurse” fluidized bed, is ensured thanks to a controlled pressure difference imposed on the latter and secondary aeration. This ventilation located at the bottom of the absorber tubes makes it possible to control the fluidization regimes. The latter strongly influence the parietal heat transfers and therefore the performance of the receiver. In order to better understand the conditions of appearance of these regimes and to better identify them, a study at room temperature was carried out with a tube 45 mm in internal diameter and 3.63 m in height. The tube is instrumented with several pressure sensors distributed over its height. More than 170 experiments have been performed exploring wide ranges of particle and aeration flow rates, with and without particle circulation. Signal processing methods, classically used in the scientific literature of fluidized beds, are applied. Combined together, these methods have enabled the identification of bubbling, pistoning (of the wall and axisymmetric), turbulent fluidization and rapid fluidization regimes. The pooling of all this information allows the establishment of a diagram of the fluidization regimes and their transition, showing that the local slip velocity is the key parameter governing the structure of the flow.