Fluidization characteristics of lithium-titanate in gas-solid fluidized bed

Abstract

Experiments were conducted to investigate the hydrodynamic behaviour of lithium titanate (Li₂TiO₃) in gas-solid fluidized bed. The objective of the study was to study the fluidization properties of Li₂TiO₃ particles. These studies will be useful to find the applicability of fluidization to increase the effective thermal conductivity and wall to bed heat transfer coefficient of Li₂TiO₃ particulate bed in test blanket module of fusion reactor. Li₂TiO₃ was synthesized by solid state reaction process and different particle sizes were classified. Experiments were conducted in a cylindrical column of 90 mm diameter and 650 mm height in perspex material with metallic distributor plate. Dry compressed air was used as fluidizing medium. From the experiments it was observed that Li₂TiO₃ is fluidizable, but severe slugging and bubbling were observed in the fluidized bed. Minimum fluidization and bubbling velocity of Li₂TiO₃ particles were determined and compared to that of white sand of similar particle size and density. The experimental details and observations are discussed in this paper.