STUDIES ON CERTAIN ASPECTS OF SEMI-FLUIDIZATION
BY
GOPENDRA KISHORE ROY
THESIS SUBMITTED TO
THE SAMBALPUR UNIVERSITY, BURLA FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING 1974
GOPENDRA KISHORE ROY
B . S c . Chem. E n g g . , B a n a r e s Hindu U n i v e r s i t y , 1966.
M.Tech. C h e m . E n g g . , I n d i a n I n s t i t u t e o f Technology, K h a r a g p u r , 1 9 7 1 .
A a s s o c i a t e Member, I n s t i t u t e of E n g i n e e r s ( I n d i a ) and I n d i a n I n s t i t u t e o f Chemical E n g i n e e r s .
L e c t u r e r i n t h e Department o f Chemical E n g i n e e r i n g , R e g i o n a l E n g i n e e r i n g C o l l e g e , Rourkela s i n c e October
1 9 6 6 .
A t h e s i s e n t i t l e d " S t u d i e s on Certain Aspects of
S e m i - f l u i d i z a t i o n " is submitted h e r e w i t h . This is the f i r s t t h e s i s based on the work planned to be c a r r i e d out since 1968 on s e m i - f l u i d i z a t i o n - a new method of solid - f l u i d contacting v i s u a l i z e d in t h e e a r l y 1 9 6 0 ' s . This work has been i n i t i a t e d in the department of Chemical Engineering and overcoming considerable i n i t i a l t r o u b l e s , the r e s u l t s obtained have been codified in the form of t h i s Doctoral the sis .
In the present work, two s e t s of apparatus have been constructed and experimental data have been obtained on t h e various a s p e c t s l i k e the p r e d i c t i o n of minimum and maximum s e m i - f l u i d i z a t i o n v e l o c i t i e s , packed bed formation and t o t a l p r e s s u r e drop in the semifluidized bed. These w i l l form t h e b a s i s for the design of semifluidized bed r e a c t o r s for c a r r y -
ing out f a s t exothermic r e a c t i o n s with b e t t e r c o n t r o l . The data have been c o r r e l a t e d by means of dimension- l e s s groups. The experimental values have been compared with those obtained, using c o r r e l a t i o n s .
