Chemical Engineering Science 55 (2000) 2741}2744

Shorter Communication
Identi"cation of hydrodynamic similarity in risers of circulating
#uidized beds
Received 4 May 1999; received in revised form 16 October 1999; accepted 26 October 1999
Transport and reaction performances of a riser of
circulating #uidized beds (CFBs) depend, to a large ex-
tent, on the complicated two-phase hydrodynamics of
such reactors. To make possible the scale up of a laborat-
ory model, it is necessary to establish scaling rules for
hydrodynamic similarity. Till date, several similar sets of
similitude invariants have been presented by di!erent
researchers based mainly on the dimensional analysis or
the analysis of governing equations, and generally, con-
formity of respective criteria to experimental results was
also found (Glicksman, 1984,1988; Horio, Ishii, Kobukai
& Yamanishi, 1989; Ishii & Murakami, 1990; Glicksman,
Westphalen, Woloshun, Ebert, Roth, Lints, Brereton
& Grace, 1991; Chang & Louge, 1992; Patience,
Chaouki, Berruti & Wong, 1992). Although previous
work suggests that the similitude method could be a use-
ful tool for hydrodynamic scale up of such reactors, the
bounds to which the derived similitude numbers can be
con"dently used have remained uncertain, and the rela-
tive signi"cance of those dimensionless numbers are not
yet clear. To ascertain these aspects, we resort to an
equational analysis of the widely adopted 1-D #ow model.
The governing equations of an 1-D #ow models can be
obtained by simplifying the two-#uid model equations
(Nieuwland, Delnoij, Kuipers & van Swaaij, 1997). By
continuity, the equations are
G
E
"
E
;
E
"u
E

E
(1)
for the gas phase, and
G
N
"
N
;
N
"u
N

N
(2)
for the solids phase. For the axial momentum balance,
the equations are
d
dz
(
E

E
u`
E
)"!
E
dp
dz
!F
"
!F
E
!F
EU
(3)
for the gas phase, and
d
dz
(
N

N
u`
N
)"!
N
dp
dz
#F
"
!F
N
!F
NU
(4)
for the solids phase.
With
E
"1!
N
, eliminating pressure gradient terms
from Eqs. (3) and (4) yields
(1!
E
)G
E
du
E
dz
!
E
G
N
du
N
dz
"
E
F
N
#(1!
E
)F
E
!F
"
!(1!
E
)F
EU
#
E
F
NU
. (5)
Similarly, an independent equation for pressure gradi-
ent is obtained by combining Eqs. (3) and (4)
!
dp
dz
"G
N
du
N
dz
#G
E
du
E
dz
#F
E
#F
N
#F
EU
#F
NU
. (6)
In Eqs. (5) and (6), the drag force per unit volume
mixture is de"ned by
F
"
"`
"
C
"

E
(1!
E
)
(u
E
!u
N
)`
d
N
, (7)
the gravity force terms are
F
N
"
N

N
g, (8)
F
E
"
E

E
g, (9)
the gas}wall shear force is
F
EU
"

E
2

E
u`
E
D
(10)
and, the solid-wall shear force is expressed as
F
NU
"

N
2

N
u`
N
D
. (11)
By using Eqs. (1) and (2), the terms u
E
and u
N
can be
expressed as unique functions of
E
. For instance, the
phase slip velocity u
P
may be expressed as
u
P
"(u
E
!u
N
)"
;
E

E

1!
;
N
;
E

E
1!
E

(12)
then the particle Reynolds number becomes
Re
P
"

E
d
N
u
P

E
"

E
;
E
d
N

E

1!
;
N
;
E

E
1!
E

. (13)
0009-2509/00/$- see front matter 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 0 9 - 2 5 0 9 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 5 4 8 - 5
Nomenclature
C
"
drag coe$cient
d
N
particle diameter, m
D diameter, m
F force, N/m`
Fr Froude number
g gravity constant, m/s`
G mass #ux, kg/m`s
axial length, m
m magni"cation
p pressure, N/m`
P dimensionless pressure
Re Reynolds number
u local velocity, m/s
; super"cial velocity, m/s
;
R
particle terminal velocity, m/s
z length, m
Z dimensionless length
Greek letters
hold-up
friction factor
viscosity, Pa s
density, kg/m`
slip factor

Q
particle sphericity factor
Subscripts
B body force
cl cluster
D drag
g gas
p solid
t terminal
Selecting and (
N
!
E
)gD as the characteristic scales
of the riser length and pressure, respectively, Eqs. (5) and
(6) can be non-dimensionlized as the following two ordi-
nary di!erential equations:

1#

N
;`
N

E
;`
E


E
1!
E

d
E
dZ
"!
g
;`
E
(
N
!
E
)

E
`
E
#
3C
"
4

d
N

1!
;
N
;
E

E
1!
E

`
!

N
2

N
;`
N

E
;`
E

D
`
E
(1!
E
)`
#

E
2

E
(14)
and
!
dP
dZ
"
;`
E
gD

E
(
N
!
E
)

N
;`
N

E
;`
E


E
1!
E

`
!1

1
`
E
d
E
dZ
#(1!
E
)
(
N
!
E
)

D
#

N
2

N
(
N
!
E
)
;`
N
gD

D
1
(1!
E
)
#

E
2
;`
E
gD

E
(
N
!
E
)

D
1

E
. (15)
Eqs. (14) and (15) contain all the information in the
original governing equations without introducing addi-
tional assumptions.
The following eight independent similitude invariants
can be drawn from Eqs. (14) and (15) that ensure 1-D
hydrodynamic similarity of the gas holdup and pressure
distributions along the riser axis in case of the same
boundary conditions:

E
(Z), P(Z)"function

;`
E
gD
,
;`
N
;`
E
,

E

N
,

D
,

d
N
, C
"
,
D
,
N

,
(16)
where the Froude number is de"ned by
Fr"
;`
E
gD
. (17)
At this point, it is evident that if the veri"cation basis of
similarity is the 1-D voidage and velocity pro"les (Horio
et al., 1989; Ishii & Murakami, 1990; Glicksman et al.,
1991), the derived dimensionless numbers constitute a set
of kinematic and dynamic similarity criteria that should
keep invariant during scaling up.
The "rst "ve dimensionless numbers in the right-hand
side of Eq. (16) contain seven variables, i.e., ;
E
, ;
N
,
E
,

N
, d
N
, , and gD. Though the others are de"nitely de-
"ned, the particle parameters d
N
and
N
deserve further
scrutiny. Under di!erent #ow regimes, particles may ex-
hibit quite di!erent behaviors such as cluster formation
(Horio et al., 1989). In general, d
N
and
N
could be treated
as some e!ective properties such as cluster diameter
d

and density

(e.g. Horio et al., 1989), or equivalent

particle diameter
N
d
N
(Chang & Louge, 1992).
The remaining three dimensionless parameters, i.e., the
drag coe$cient and friction factors due to particle/
#uid}wall shearing, arise from the dynamic similarity
conditions. Although the standard drag coe$cient curve
is not directly applicable to the CFB modeling (e.g.,
Littman, Morgan, Paccione, Jovanovic & Grbavic,
1993), it is commonly accepted that the drag coe$cient is
2742 H. Liu et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 55 (2000) 2741}2744
a function of particle Reynolds number and gas holdup:
C
"
"C
"
(Re
P
,
E
) (18)
where the hold up term serves to roughly characterize the
inter-particle e!ects.
From Eq. (13) it is seen that
Re
P
"function

E
;
E
d
N

E
,
;
E
;
N
,
E

, (19)
where the Reynolds number Re
N
is de"ned as
Re
N
"

E
;
E
d
N

E
. (20)
The #uid}wall shear coe$cient can be de"ned by the
following Blasius relation (Nieuwland et al., 1997)

D
"
D
(Re), (21)
where the Reynolds number, Re, is de"ned as
Re"

E
;
E
D

E
. (22)
The following function for particle}wall shear coe$-
cient was suggested by Nieuwland et al. (1997):

N
"
N

Re
R
, Re
P
,
u`
N
gd
N
,
E

, (23)
where the Reynolds number based on the particle ter-
minal velocity is a newly introduced dimensionless
number:
Re
R
"

E
;
R
d
N

E
. (24)
The boundary conditions at the riser entrance should
also be incorporated into the present criteria. From Pug-
sley, Patience, Berruti and Chaouki (1992), for Geldart
A-powders the voidage at the bottom of a riser is corre-
lated by

@
"0.714

;
N
;
E

""````
Re"`"`
R
D""`"". (25)
There is no new dimensionless number appearing in
this correlation except for the anomalous dimension of D.
This implies that strong scale e!ect may occur during the
scaling up for the entrance region. Because of a lack of
data, at present, it seems di$cult to further resolve this
e!ect.
Due to the restriction of the one-dimensional #ow
model, other governing parameters such as inter-particle
force, and the e!ects of choking and electrostatics (Chang
& Louge, 1992) are not taken into account in the above
analysis. In what follows, the derived criteria are exam-
ined by a comparison with the previous ones.
Based on an analysis of the generalized governing
equations of motion, Glicksman (1984,1988) suggested
a set of "ve similitude invariants for bubbling #uidized
beds. According to Glicksman, the dynamic similarity
condition for the drag force is obtained via the Ergun-
type expression. Therefore, in the viscous limit, the drag
coe$cient is a unique function of Re
N
and voidage. In
this case, Glicksman's criteria may be written as (Glicks-
man, 1984,1988):

E
;
E
d
N

E
,
gd
N
;`
E
,

E

N
,
d
N
D
,
d
N

,
Q
. (26)
In the inertial limit, the drag coe$cient is a function of
only gas holdup (Glicksman, 1984,1988), correspond-
ingly, Glicksman's criteria becomes
gd
N
;`
E
,
d
N
D
,

E

N
,
d
N

,
Q
. (27)
When the particle sphericity factor
Q
is combined
with the particle e!ective mean diameter (Chang
& Louge, 1992), it is proved from the above analysis that
Glicksman's set of similarity numbers is equivalent to
those derived in this paper with the precondition of
geometrical similarity.
Horio et al. (1989) derived similarity laws from the
core-annulus model (Ishii, Nakajima & Horio, 1989). In
terms of the given necessary conditions of geometrical
and kinematic similarity, the geometrical similarity con-
ditions for the model (with a prime) and the prototype are

"
D
D
"m. (28)
Combining Fr and ;
N
/;
E
with the geometrical sim-
ilarity conditions yields
;
E
;
E
"
;
N
;
N
"(m. (29)
When the particle diameter is represented by cluster
diameters, combining /d
N
with the geometrical sim-
ilarity conditions yields
d
N
d
N
"m. (30)
By using the speci"ed correlation
N
"au`>@
RA
/gD (Hor-
io et al., 1989), the following Horio similarity condition is
derived:
;
R
;
R
"(m. (31)
Substituting the correlations for ;
R
into Eq. (31) yields
the corresponding single-particle mean-size similarity
conditions (Horio et al., 1989). Therefore, the same sim-
ilarity conditions as those of Horio et al. (1989) can be
derived based on Eq. (16).
Patience et al. (1992) proposed the following criterion
of the slip factor , which incorporates with indicative
H. Liu et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 55 (2000) 2741}2744 2743
* Corresponding author. Tel.: #86-10-64436787; fax: #86-10-
64436781.
E-mail address: licy@buct.edu.cn (C. Li)
experimental evidence in di!erent size risers
"1#5.6/Fr#0.47Fr""
R
, (32)
where Fr
R
";`
R
/gD. Using the continuity conditions, Eq.
(32) can be transformed into
1!
E

E
"
;
N
;
E
(1#5.6/Fr#0.47Fr""
R
). (33)
It is readily seen that

E
"function

;
N
;
E
, Fr, Fr
R

. (34)
This is merely a special case consistent with the criteria
by Horio et al. with the precondition of geometrical
similarity.
All of the analyses mentioned above show that Eq. (16)
can be used as a set of 1-D hydrodynamic similarity
criteria. The signi"cance of the involving dimensionless
numbers can be clearly identi"ed from the simpli"ed Eqs.
(14) and (15). Further research is optionally needed to
quantify their scale-up e!ects.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the "nancial sup-
port of the NSFC, with the Grant No. 29792073-3.
HUI LIU
BIAOHUA CHEN
CHENGYUE LI*
College of Chemical Engineering
Beijing University of Chemical Technology
Beijing 100029
People's Republic of China
References
Chang, H., & Louge, M. (1992). Fluid dynamic similarity of circulating
#uidized beds. Powder Technology, 70, 259}270.
Glicksman, L. R. (1984). Scaling relationships for #uidized beds. Chem-
ical Engineering Science, 39, 1373}1379.
Glicksman, L. R. (1988). Scaling relationships for #uidized beds. Chem-
ical Engineering Science, 43, 1419}1421.
Glicksman, L. R., Westphalen, D., Woloshun, K., Ebert, T., Roth, K.,
Lints, M., Brereton, C. M. H. Grace, J. R. (1991). Experimental scale
models of circulating #uidized bed combustors. In E. J. Anthony,
Proceedings of the 11th Conference on FBC. Montreal, p. 1169.
Horio, M., Ishii, H., Kobukai, Y., & Yamanishi, N. (1989). A scaling law
for circulating #uidized bed. Journal of Chemical Engineering of
Japan, 22, 587}592.
Ishii, H., & Murakami, I. (1990). Evaluation of the scaling law of
circulating #uidized beds in regard to cluster behaviors. In P. Basu,
M. Horio, & M. Hasatani, Proceedings of the third International
Conference on CFB (p. 125). New York: Pergamon Press.
Ishii, H., Nakajima, T., & Horio, M. (1989). The clustering annular #ow
model of circulating #uidized beds. Journal of Chemical Engineering
of Japan, 22, 484}490.
Littman, L., Morgan III, M. H., Paccione, J. D., Jovanovic, S. D.,
& Grbavic, Z. B. (1993). Modeling and measurement of the e!ective
drag coe$cient in decelerating and non-accelerating turbulent
gas}solids dilute phase #ow of large particles in a vertical transport
pipe. Powder Technology, 77, 267}283.
Nieuwland, J. J., Delnoij, E., Kuipers, J. A. M., & van Swaaij, W. P. M.
(1997). An engineering model for dilute riser #ow. Powder Techno-
logy, 90, 115}123.
Patience, G. S., Chaouki, J., Berruti, F., & Wong, R. (1992). Scaling
considerations for circulating #uidized bed risers. Powder Techno-
logy, 72, 31}37.
Pugsley, T. S., Patience, G. S., Berruti, F. B., & Chaouki, J. (1992).
Modeling the catalytic oxidation of n-butane to maleic anhydride in
a circulating #uidized bed reactor. Industrial Engineering and Chem-
ical Research, 31, 2652}2660.
2744 H. Liu et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 55 (2000) 2741}2744