Author(s)

Justin M. Jeremiah¹, Samwel V. Manyele¹, Abraham K. Temu¹, Jesse-X. Zhu²

¹Department of Chemical and Mining Engineering, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
²Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.

An experimental study of the gas-solid flow dynamics in the high-flux CFB riser was accomplished by analysing the scaling regions from solid concentration signals collected from a 76 mm internal diameters and 10 m high riser of a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) system. The riser was operated at 4.0 to 10.0 m/s gas velocity and 50 to 550 kg/m²s solids flux. Spent fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) catalyst particles of 67 μm mean diameter and 1500 kg/m³ density together with 70% to 80% humid air was used. Solid concentration data were analysed using codes prepared in FORTRAN 2008 to get correlation integrals at different embedding dimensions and operating conditions and plot their profiles. Scaling regions were identified by visual inspection method and their location on planes determined. Scaling regions were analysed based on operating conditions and riser spatial locations. It was found that scaling regions occupy different locations on the plane depending on the number of embedding dimensions and operating conditions. As the number of embedding dimensions increases the spacing between scaling regions decreases until it saturates towards higher embedding dimensions. Slopes of scaling regions increases with embedding dimensions until saturation where they become constant. Slopes of scaling regions towards the wall decrease while the number of scaling regions for a particular profile increases. The span of the scaling region is wider at the initial values of hyperspherical radius than its final values. The scaling regions in some flow development sections show multifractal behaviour for each embedding dimension which manifests into visible basin which is defined in this study as multifractal basin. Further, the end points of the scaling region for each correlation integral profile differ from each other as the embedding dimension changes. This study suggests that identification of scaling region by visual inspection method is useful in understanding the gas-solid flow dynamics in the High-Flux CFB riser system. Further studies are recommended on risers of different diameters and heights operated at low and high solid fluxes and different gas velocities for comparison or usage of time series of different signal types like pressure fluctuations.

Scaling Region, Correlation Integral, Correlation Dimension, Embedding Dimensions, Multifractal Basin, High-Flux Riser

Jeremiah, J. , Manyele, S. , Temu, A. and Zhu, J. (2019) Mapping the Wall-Region Dynamics of High-Flux Gas-Solid Riser Using Scaling Regions from the Solid Concentration Time Series. Engineering, 11, 74-92. doi: 10.4236/eng.2019.111007.