1728 P. Basu, J.

Butler / Applied Energy 86 (2009) 1723–1731

From the pressure drop DPs measured across a height, Ls of the

standpipe one can compute the gas—solid slip velocity, Du, which
is the sum of upward gas velocity usg and downward solid velocity
uss.

UV Gs
Du ¼ usg þ uss ¼ þ ð5Þ
e qs ð1  eÞ
The superficial gas velocity in the standpipe (UV) is determined
from the above equation from measured solid flux, Gs in the stand-
pipe and known voidage. It gives a positive value for the upward
flowing gas or a negative value for the downward flow of gas.
The gas flow rate though the horizontal passage is found by sub-
tracting the gas flow into the standpipe, QSP from the total gas flow
rate entering the bottom of the supply chamber. The gas velocity
through the horizontal passage (UH) is then found using its cross-
sectional area.

Q H ¼ Q T  Q SP ð6Þ

where QSP = UV  ASP; and QH = UH  AH ASP is the horizontal cross-sec- Fig. 6. Variation in spread angle a against non-dimensional aeration velocity for
tion area of the standpipe AH is the vertical cross-section area of the glass and sand particles of different sizes.
horizontal passage.
In instances where the velocity in the standpipe is negative QSP
is added to the total flow rate to get the flow through the horizon- If there is no aeration directly underneath the horizontal pas-
tal passage. sage, as is the case with the rest of this research, the solids in the
horizontal passage will be moved by both the hydrostatic pressure
3. Results and discussion from the solids in the supply chamber (and or standpipe) as well as
the drag force of the gas from the supply chamber to the recycle
Solids collected in gas–solid separator drops into its standpipe. chamber.
It then flows downward under gravity. Non-mechanical valves like
loop-seal help solids, collected in the standpipe, move horizontally 3.2. Effect of aeration and horizontal passage length on solid flow
unaided but only to a certain distance because of the gravitational
force of solids acting on them and the opposition of the inter-par- The solids flow rate was measured for a number of different
ticle friction to this motion. Airflow into the solids help reduce the loop-seal aeration rates (expressed as a ratio of superficial velocity
inter-particle friction. So, to understand how solids flow from the through the horizontal passage and the minimum fluidization
standpipe to the horizontal passage and then to the recycle cham- velocity, UH/Umf). Fig. 7 shows that the solids flow started only
ber it is necessary to understand the effect of airflow on the free above a certain value of the aeration rate and the solids flow rate
movement of solids from a fixed pile. increased with increasing aeration rate nearly linearly until it
reached a maximum value. No further increase in solids flow rate
3.1. Effect of velocity on spread angle was possible in spite of continued increase in the value of UH/Umf.
Fig. 7 shows a finite value for the intercept of the solid circula-
The spread angle at zero velocity that is equal to the angle of re- tion vs. (UH/Umf) graph because the horizontal section offers a resis-
pose is a function of particle shape and size. Table 1 shows that for tance to the solid flow, and the airflow through the horizontal
silica sand the angle of repose is generally in the range of 33.3–34°. passage must exceed this resistance before any solid flow is initi-
For glass beads the angle of repose is much lower in the range of ated. Other workers also observed such a presence of minimum
24–27°. Manufactured glass spheres are generally more spherical aeration for the initiation of solids flow [2,9].
and regular in shape than natural sand. For this reasons the in-
ter-particle friction amongst glass particles is lower and hence
the lower angle of repose compared to that for sand particles. Thus,
glass particles will move out further into the horizontal passage. It
is interesting to note that within the present range of particle size
(92–184 lm) for sand (124–644 lm) for glass no clear effect of
particle size on the angle of repose is observed.
Fig. 6 shows that the spread angle reduced steadily with an in-
crease in the aeration rate through the solids. Beyond a critical
velocity the spread angle dropped to zero. This critical velocity
marks the onset of free solids flow and is interestingly very close
to the Umf of the mean size of the particle. To verify this observa-
tion for all particles the spread angle is plotted against fluidization
number, which is a ratio of the superficial velocity and minimum
fluidization velocity measured for the particle (Fig. 6). It is interest-
ing to note that the spread angle dropped to zero at a fluidization
number of around 1.0 for nearly all sizes of both types of particles.
Thus, coarser particles, having higher Umf will need higher aeration
rate in the supply chamber than a finer particle for solids to flow Fig. 7. Changes in solids circulation flux with supply chamber aeration (UH/Umf) and
freely into the recycle chamber. horizontal passage length (L/H).