Flow and drying characteristics of a rotating jet spouted bed

A novel rotating jet spouted bed (RJSB) is developed and tested. It consists of a rotating air distributor with two radially located spouting air nozzles. The effects of bed height, distributor rotational speed, nozzle diameter and particle properties on the flow characteristics were examined. Various flow regimes were mapped as functions of distributor rotational speed and superficial air velocity for different materials and column dimensions. Empirical correlations were developed for the minimum spouting velocity, peak pressure drop and steady spouting pressure drop.;Drying kinetics of corn as a test material was investigated using both continuous and intermittent (on/off) spouting/heating schemes. The parameters investigated include inlet air temperature, bed height, superficial air velocity, nozzle diameter, distributor rotational speed and intermittency of spouting and heat input. The results indicate that the drying kinetics are comparable with conventional spouted and fluidized beds for slow drying materials and that intermittent drying can save up to 40% of the thermal energy consumption.;A fully predictive diffusion-based mathematical model was developed and validated for both continuous and intermittent drying in the RJSB. Several other time-dependent spouting/heating schemes were evaluated numerically in the light of their potential practical applications.