Annular wall layer thickness in circulating fluidized bed risers

The thickness of downward-flowing annular wall layers in circulating fluidized bed risers has been determined in the literature based on measured radial profiles of both local particle velocity and solids flux. The thickness of the wall layer is shown to be larger based on solids flux profiles than when based on particle velocity profiles, because fluctuations in local instantaneous particle velocity are correlated with fluctuations in local solids concentration. A new correlation is developed to predict the time-average thickness of the downflowing particle streamer layer based on solids flux measurements as a function of the cross-sectional average voidage. It successfully accounts for the variation of the wall layer thickness with axial location and solids circulation rate.