The response of the level of a liquid fluidized bed to a sudden change in the fluidizing velocity

Summary

When the fluidizing velocity in a liquid fluidized bed of solid particles is suddenly changed, a discontinuity in the porosity is introduced at the bottom of the bed. This discontinuity is propagated upwards through the bed. The boundary between the old and the new porosity broadens or remains sharp depending on whether the porosity is increased or decreased. This behaviour is reflected in the way in which the bed level changes as a function of time. For a few different systems such response curves have been measured by means of a specially designed follow-up system. On the basis of the above mechanism a quantitative theory was developed for the response of the bed level to a step-wise change in the fluidizing velocity. This theory proved to give a satisfactory agreement with the observed facts.