Wavelet Characterization of the Flow Regime in a Gas-Solid Fluidized Bed

摘要

Processes like combustion, pyrolysis or gasification of coal and biomass are typical applications of gas-solid fluidized beds. These reactors normally use silica sand as the inert material inside the bed and the sand particles represent around 95% of the total bed weight. Pressure measurements have been used to characterize the dynamic behavior of fluidized beds since early researches in the area. Pressure fluctuations are generally due to bubbles flow which characterizes the fluidization regime. The present work aims to perform a time-frequency analysis of the pressure signal acquired in an experimental apparatus on different gas-solid flow regimes. Continuous and discrete wavelet transforms were applied and the results were compared with image records acquired simultaneously with the pressure signal. The main frequencies observed are in accordance with the ones obtained through Fourier spectra. The time-frequency distribution of the signal agrees with the phenomena observed in the image record, remarkably for the slugging flow. Some additional research is still necessary to completely characterize the flow regimes using the wavelet scalograms but the present results show that the task is a very promising one.