Tube erosion in bubbling fluidized beds
- Lehigh Univ., Bethlehem, PA (United States). Energy Research Center
- Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States)
This paper reports on experimental and theoretical studies that were preformed of the interaction between bubbles and tubes and tube erosion in fluidized beds. The results are applicable to the erosion of horizontal tubes in the bottom row of a tube bundle in a bubbling bed. Cold model experimental data show that erosion is caused by the impact of bubble wakes on the tubes, with the rate of erosion increasing with the velocity of wake impact with the particle size. Wake impacts resulting from the vertical coalescence of pairs of bubbles directly beneath the tube result in particularly high rates of erosion damage. Theoretical results from a computer simulation of bubbling and erosion show very strong effects of the bed geometry and bubbling conditions on computed rates of erosion. These results show, for example, that the rate of erosion can be very sensitive to the vertical location of the bottom row of tubes with respect to the distributor.
- OSTI ID:
- 659274
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-910424--; ISBN 0-7918-0619-7
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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