Journal of Chemical Engineering & Process Technology
Open Access

Abstract

Experimental Studies on Hydrodynamics Characteristics of Co-current Three Phase Fluidization Using Different Sizes of Glass Beads and its Prediction by Fuzzy Logic

Anish T. Achankunju, Sivalingam A and Kannadasan T

The experiment was carried out with different sizes of Glass beads. That is Glass beads of diameter 0.2 cm, 0.4 cm, 0.6 cm. Water was used as a continuous phase and air was used as a dispersed phase. These three different sized Glass beads were used as solids for co-current studies. The three sections of the experimental setup viz. gas liquid disengagement section, test section and gas liquid distributed section. The experiment was conducted with Glass beads with varying liquid velocities and keeping constant gas velocity 0.16985138 cm/sec, 0.212314225 cm/sec, 0.304317056 cm/sec, 0.346779901 cm/sec. The graphs were plotted and their effects on individual phase holdups for various particle sizes were studied. Pressure drop of fluids in the fluidized bed was measured by using mercury manometer and by using ethyl acetate manometer. The phase holdups like solid, liquid, gas were determined, liquid holdup and solid holdup decreases with increase in liquid velocity whereas gas holdup increases with increases in liquid velocity. With the experimental data, simulation studies were carried out using Fuzzy Logic.