DESIGN FACTORS OF CONICAL SPOUTED BEDS AND JET SPOUTED BEDS

Original aspects in the design of conical contactors used in spouting and jet spouting regimes have been studied. The experimental results correspond to different solids: glass spheres in the 0.001-0.008-m particle diameter range, polystyrene, vegetable seeds, gravel, and Teflon, which have been used in contactors with different geometries (several angles and inlet diameters). The conditioning factors for instability of the spouted bed, which limit the maximum and minimum spoutable bed height, have been analyzed. A correlation has been proposed for the calculation of the minimum spoutable bed height as a function of the geometric factors of the contactor-particle system and density of the solid. From the bed hydrodynamics, correlations have been proposed to dimension the contactor as a function of the volume and properties of the solid to be treated in spouting and jet spouting regimes.