A study of heat transfer in fluidized beds using an integrated DIA/PIV/IR technique

A new measuring technique for studying heat transfer in gas–solid fluidized beds is proposed using infrared (IR) thermography. An infrared camera is coupled with a visual camera to simultaneously record images to give instantaneous thermal and hydrodynamic data of a pseudo 2D fluidized bed. The established techniques: digital image analysis (DIA) and particle image velocimetry (PIV) are combined with IR thermography to obtain combined quantitative (i.e. hydrodynamic and thermal) data sets. In this work, the calibration procedure and the methods that are used to combine the data obtained by the different techniques are discussed. The combined technique provides insightful information on the heat transfer in a fluidized bed for varying particle size, aspect ratio and background (or fluidization) gas velocity.