Bubble injection Dense phase

For cracker catalyst (d = 55 (im, density = 950 kg/m3) fluidised by air, values of umb/umf of up to 2.8 have been found by Davies and Richardson(45). During the course of this work it was found that there is a minimum size of bubble which is stable. Small bubbles injected into a non-bubbling bed tend to become assimilated in the dense phase, whilst, on the other hand, larger bubbles tend to grow at the expense of the gas flow in the dense phase. If a bubble larger than the critical size is injected into an expanded bed, the bed will initially expand by an amount equal to the volume of the injected bubble. When, however, the bubble breaks the surface, the bed will fall back below the level existing before injection and will therefore have acquired a reduced voidage. 

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