Segregation by size difference in a conical fluidized bed of pharmaceutical granulate

Axial and radial segregation studies of a dry placebo pharmaceutical granulate exhibiting a continuous, bimodal particle size distribution have been carried out in a bench-scale conical fluidized bed. Experiments were conducted at superficial gas velocities of 0.5, 0.75, and 1.0 m/s based on the cone inlet diameter and static bed heights of 0.12 and 0.17 m above the distributor. Axial profiles of the mixing index show that granule greater than 800 μm segregate to the bottom of the bed. Radial segregation data shows that the large granule tends to accumulate at the centre bottom and becomes better mixed as the gas velocity is increased. Static bed height showed no influence on radial or axial segregation in this study. It is theorized that observed segregation patterns are because the local velocities in the dilute central core region of the conical bed are less than the terminal velocities of the largest particles in the particle size distribution.