Types of gas fluidization of cohesive granular materials

Abstract

Some years ago it was shown that gas-fluidized powders may transit from solidlike to fluidlike fluidization prior to bubbling, shedding light on a long-standing controversy on the nature of “homogeneous” fluidization. In this paper it is shown that some gas-fluidized powders may also transit from the fluidlike regime to elutriation, with full suppression of the bubbling regime. We provide a diagram that can be used to predict these types of fluidization exhibited by cohesive powders based on simple phenomenological equations in which particle aggregation due to attractive forces is a key ingredient.