The effect of particle size distribution on minimum fluidization velocity at high temperature

The objective of this research is to study the effect of high temperature and particle size distribution (PSD) on minimum fluidization velocity (Umf). Four particle size distributions of silica were fluidized in air at atmospheric pressure between 700 and 900 °C. The particle size distributions evaluated included a narrow cut, a binary mixture, a uniform distribution, and a Gaussian distribution, all with similar means. The experimental results revealed a minimum in Umf near 800 °C. The reason might be that interparticle forces would be changed as temperature rose and increased the minimum fluidization velocity. The binary and uniform size distributions behaved similarly to each other but generally had higher Umfs than the Gaussian and narrow cut distributions.