Experimental study on the agglomerate characteristics of particles in the wet spouted bed

The experimental system containing a conical-cylindrical spouted bed and a same dimension semi-spouted bed is established in this study. The internal diameter of the cylindrical column is 140 mm. The conical base of internal angle 60° is located at the bottom of cylindrical column. The effects of liquid contents, particle size and particle shape on the agglomerate in the bed are studied. The results show that there are three kinds of agglomerate in the wet spouted bed, i.e. agglomerate spouting, defluidization and non uniform agglomerate. The agglomerate behavior is strongly reliant on particle size. When particle size d_p>1 mm and the liquid saturation S>0.2, the agglomerate spouting is easy to take place. When d_p<1 mm and S>0.05, the defluidization and non uniform agglomerate is easy to take place. Based on the analysis of forces acted on particles, a new method for predicting the tendency of the agglomerate in the wet spouted bed is proposed.