Kinetic Theory Explanation of a Circulating Fluidized Bed Ring Structure near Choking.

The objective of this technical note is to give an alternate explanation of the ring structure behavior for the flow of fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) particles in a riser recently obtained in L. S. Fan’s laboratory. Their recent explanation of this phenomenon is due to the low velocity at the center. While indeed this is one of the causes of the high concentration near the center, we show that an additional driving force for the higher concentration at the center is the low granular temperature caused by the dissipation of random kinetic energy at the center of the riser. An approximate analytical solution applied to the flow of FCC particles obtained in Fan’s laboratory again produces a dip in the granular temperature in the center and hence a rise in the particle concentration. This phenomenon occurs as a result of the constancy of solids pressure in the developed region of the riser. It is the so-called shear-induced diffusion effect well-known for neutrally buoyant particles in liquids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]