Pergamon

Chemical Engineering Science, Vol. 51, No. 4, pp. 667-669, 1996

Copyright 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd
Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved
0009-2509/96 $15.00 + 0.00

0009-2509(95)00321-5

Gas-solid

fluidization: a typical dissipative structure

(Received 22 June 1995)

INTRODUCTION

Figure 1 shows the variation of different energy terms with

gas velocity, all computed according to the EMMS model
(Li et al., 1988; Li and Kwauk, 1994). The figure indicates
that in the PFC regime for fluidization, the dissipated energy
Ndisoccupies a considerable portion of the total energy Nr,
while as the flow regime transits to dilute transport, it drops
dramatically.
In the EMMS model, the energy consumption for suspending and transporting unit mass of particles N~ is shown
to be minimal in the PFC regime and maximal in the FD
regime, and it can therefore be used as the criterion for
stability conditions. Further work (Li et al., 1993) indicated
that Nt can be used as a substitute for N~, to define stability
conditions of these two regimes, that is, Nt = rain in the PFC
regime and Nr = max in the FD regime. Noting the constancy of N r at any specified value of Ug from eq. (3), it thus
follows from eq. (5) that Nais = max in the PFC regime with
a two-phase structure and that Nals = rain in the FD regime
with a uniform structure.

In accordance with the controlling role of the particles

and/or the fluid, Li et al. (1992) characterized the three major
regimes in particle-fluid two-phase flow as: particle dominating (PD) for the fixed bed, particle-fluid compromising (PFC)
for fluidization and fluid dominating (FD) for dilute transport. Subsequent efforts have been focused on transition and
structural difference between regimes (Li and Kwauk, 1994).
In modeling particle-fluid two-phase flow by the energyminimization multi-scale (EMMS) method, Li et al. (1988)
attributed the stability of the heterogeneous two-phase structure of the PFC regime to the inherent tendency of the
system toward minimal energy expended in suspending and
transporting the particles Nst. For the FD regime, on the
other hand, the EMMS method revealed that N,t tends
toward a maximum. Such contrary criteria point to the
extremum behavior (Li et al., 1993) unique to particle-fluid
two-phase flow.
According to the theorem of minimum entropy production (Prigogine, 1967), steady states of linear nonequilibrium
systems prevail only when the entropy production rate is
minimized. There is however no single and general variational theorem for nonlinear steady-state dissipative systems
(Gage et al., 1966; Nicolis, 1994). This paper purports to
examine the extremum behavior of fluidized systems in the
light of nonequilibrium thermodynamics in order to explore
valid approaches to elucidate the bifurcation phenomenon
and dissipative structure for such complicated systems.

TWO BIFURCATIONS
The PD regime for the fixed bed essentially corresponds to
single-phase fluid flow through a maze of channels composed of packed particles. Particles determine the configuration of these channels, and the fluid merely seeks these
channels and distributes itself through paths with minimal
resistance, resulting in minimal energy dissipation. The pressure gradient AP/AL in this regime is known to vary with
superficial fluid velocity Ug, and in the case of fine particles,
it is proportional to Ug and is affected by an exponential
function e-4'7 of the voidage of the packed solid particles (Li
and Kwauk, 1994):

EXTREMUM ENERGY DISSIPATION

In a particle-fluid system with superficial fluid velocity
Ug and solids flow rate Gs, the energy supplied to the system
is spent not only in suspending and transporting the particles
but also as dissipated energy in particle collision, circulation,
acceleration, etc. (Li et al., 1988). With respect to unit mass of
particles in unit cross-sectional area normal to the direction
of flow, the total energy consumed is
Nr

U9

APUg
AL(1 - e)pv

(1)

(1 - ~)(p, - pz)g.

(2)

where
AP

~- =
Therefore

N~ = U ~ g\ ( P~v - / P I ]

(3)

The energy consumption transformed into particle potential

energy is
N, = G~#/(1 - e)Pv.
(4)
Therefore, the total dissipated energy is
Ndi s = N T - - N t.

(5)

d v2 e4 7
AP
18(1--e)# I AL

implying linear relationship between the driving force

AP/AL and the superficial fluid velocity Ug, as shown in Fig.
2 by experiments carried out with FCC particles fluidized
with air, with local voidages monitored with an optical fiber
probe.
As the superficial fluid velocity increases to that for minimum fluidization Uml, particles start to move and expand
with increasing voidage e, leading to nonlinearity between
Ug and AP/AL. The system is said to have entered the PFC
regime. With increasing superficial fluid velocity, nonlinearity of the system increases and reaches a critical extent at
the minimum bubbling velocity Umbat which the fluid organizes itself into bubbles and particles aggregate into the emulsion phase, resulting in a dramatic change in flow structure
which is now dissipative with ordered behaviors as Nicolis
and Prigogine (1977) described. Such a change is known as
the first bifurcation corresponding to nonequilibrium phase
transformation in thermodynamics. For particle-fluid systems with large particles, corresponding to high Rev, the
dissipative structure appears immediately beyond Urns, that

667

668

Shorter Communication

is, Umf = U=b. This dissipative structure is brought about

jointly by the particles and the fluid, both of which are
mobile. Its nonlinear nature is characterized by a highly
heterogeneous two-phase structure with significant energy
dissipation which is necessary to maintain its steady state.
At U o > U,.b, as shown in Fig. 2, the A P / A L ~ U 9 curve
bifurcates into two branches both satisfying the mass and
momentum conservation equations, corresponding to the
heterogeneous and the homogeneous structure, respectively.
For gas-solid systems, only the two-phase heterogeneous
structure, however, is physically stable, in which the particles
organize themselves into a dense phase with voidage e~ and

PFC

PD

Fixed Bed

FD

Fluidtzation

Transport

40

U=f
'$

30
O~k"
~

20

,,5

10

Nd,,=min

Ndi =

_/_.... ,.,:~_,.......
0

max

~. .....

Gas Velocity Ug (m/s)

Fig. 1. Energy consumptions in different regimes of a particle-fluid system, calculated from the EMMS model (Li
et al., 1988), showing maximum dissipation in fluidization
regime but minimum dissipation in transport regime
(FCC/air: pp = 930 kg/m 3, dp = 54 #m, Gs = 50 kg/m2s).

10

Q.
X
J

./
,.

10

Nnlineaz
~j~~i~A

U,b "',

the fluid into a dilute phase with voidage ef. Although

thermodynamics does not specify any single and general
variational theorem for such a steady-state dissipative structure, the E M M S analysis indicates that for this highly dissipative structure, Nd~s = max.
As superficial fluid velocity further increases, a second
critical velocity Up~ is reached, resulting in a second bifurcation, at which the nonlinear two-phase PFC regime suddenly
gives way to the single-phase dilute transport (generally
known as "choking"), as shown by experimental data in
Fig. 2. With the onset of this second bifurcation, the selforganization of particles is suppressed, and the dense phase
disappears, although the dilute phase becomes somewhat
denser. Such a change corresponds to a switch of stability
conditions from Nd~s = max to N d i s = min. In dilute transport, the fluid determines the flow structure, and it is therefore designated fluid dominating (FD).
Figure 3 shows the bifurcation phenomena in terms of
local voidages in the fluidized FCC bed. In the particledominating fixed-bed regime, local voidage takes a constant
value. If the first bifurcation occurs at minimum fluidization
(case for large Rep), local voidage changes suddenly to alternate between a value close to unity and a value approaching
eraf, showing an ordered dissipative structure and extremum
behavior of the system. With increasing fluid velocity,
greater perturbation prevails in such a two-phase structure,
resulting in more extensive scatter of voidage values between
unity and e,,/, attesting to intensification of chaotic and/or
random behaviors. With the onset of the second bifurcation
at choking, the probability of the existence of these two
voidage values narrow down to a very limited range (a single
value in theory), implying a more or less homogeneous
structure.
Because of the predominance of the dissipative structure
in gas solid ftuidization, the conventional time- and spaceaveraged approaches do not suffice for adequate elucidation
of the mechanisms and for quantifying the process, future
research should be focused on the non-linear behaviors of
the system.

L .1.

Second Bifurcation

-.e~

" B
"~B

,.r,.
Fixed B
Bed
Fixld

Upt

P, am

Fluidization
iiato

0
0.00

0.01

0.01

0.0~

0.~ 0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

8.0

$.5

V
note chargeof scalefar L~
Gas Velocity Ug (m/s)
Fig. 2. Experimental results (shown as dots) in a fluidized bed of 90 mm ID with FCC particles, showing
linear characteristics in the fixed-bed regime but nonlinear behaviors in the fluidization regime. The first
bifurcation at U,,b results in two branches of fluidization: one is stable with an aggregative structure due to
self-organization of particles and the fluid; another is unstable with particulate structure as shown by the
dashed line. The second bifurcation at Upt, known as "choking", leads to a second sudden change in flow
structure.

0
4.0

Shorter Communication
P~xed
1

.O0

F ILIIdl Z 8 t tON

Bed,

- - -

NOTATION

rTranspor

dp

../,-~,-.~.-, : ; ~ - . ~ . ' : ~ ~ ~

" :" i:"..'

I'..:.."i'

,:v..',':'~.:.

Fdllll

g
G,

..

0.89

Nst
..

0.78

I."

"-

".

.'

.'.

"

"

..

:.

".

:~:--

..~

".-~',~,~:":

" ""

NT

"-?.":'-'1

73

0.66

Ur.f .

"':

I.

...

056

. . . . .
0.44
001

":.: ..
:.

'

"..

:." ' ".k#!". Upt

"

. . . .
:,

." :

.,:.'."..;

"

"'.:.'.~,.'-

".V','.:"

.:"

Nt

Ndis

..'~~'.~,.::-'. ~',f . . ".0.1

AP/AL
10

Umf
Upt

~_~as:-- Velocity

LJo

(m/s)

Fig. 3. Experimental results (shown as dots) in the same bed

as Fig. 2, showing bifurcations of local voidage:
a single constant voidage in fixed-bed regime,
biextremum voidages with increasing chaotic and randora changes in fluidization regime,
convergence to another single-valued voidage in transport regime,

CONCLUSIONS
(1) Major regime transition in particle-fluid two-phase
flow (notably for gas-solid systems) corresponds to bifurcation in thermodynamics. The first bifurcation marks the
occurrence of bubbling with sudden appearance of dissipative structure; the second, PFC/FD transition, from
fluidization to dilute transport, with sudden reversion to
homogeneous structure, as particle self-organization becomes suppressed.
(2) The stability of the nonlinear dissipative PFC regime
is governed by Ndis = max. Whether such a variational criterion is applicable to some other nonlinear nonequilibrium
systems is to be explored further.
(3) Fluidization is a typical dissipative structure with nonlinear and nonequilibrium behaviors. Multiple resolution
appears to be a promising approach toward understanding
such a complicated system: total energy resolved into reversible and irreversible energies, the whole process resolved into
ordered and disordered branches, particle-fluid movement
resolved into extremum and chaotic and/or random movements, and global structure resolved into subsystems of
different scales.
Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank Prof.
Mooson Kwauk for his encouragement and help. Valuable
discussion with Prof. Weikang Yuan and Prof. Jiuli Luo and
financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China and Academia Sinica are also gratefully acknowledged.
JINGHAI LI*
GUIHUA QIAN
LIXIONG WEN
Multi-Phase Reaction Laboratory
Institute of Chemical Metallurgy
Academia Sinica, Beijing 100080,
P.R. China

* Corresponding author.

669

Ug
Umb
p:
pp
ef
~c
s
sa
e*

particle diameter, m
gravity acceleration, m/s 2
solids flow rate, kg/m 2 s
energy consumed for suspending and transporting
unit mass of particles, J/kg s
total energy consumption with respect to unit
mass of particles, J/kg s
transporting energy consumption with respect to
unit mass of particles, J/kg s
total dissipated energy with respect to unit mass
of particles, J/kg s
pressure gradient, kg/m 2 s 2
minimum fluidization velocity, m/s
minimum velocity for dilute transport, m/s
superficial velocity, m/s
minimum bubbling velocity, m/s
fluid density, kg/m 3
particle density, kg/m 3
voidage in dilute phase
voidage in dense phase
average voidage
average voidage in the PFC regime at critical
point
average voidage in the FD regime at critical point
fluid viscosity, kg/m s

REFERENCES

Gage, D. H., Schiffer, M., Kline, S. J. and Reynolds, W. C.,

1966, The non-existence of a general thermodynamic
variational principle. In Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics
Variational Techniques and Stability (edited by R. J. Donnelly, R. Herman and I. Prigogine). The University of
Chicago Press, Chicago.
Li, J., Chen, A., Yan, Z., Xu, G. and Zhang, X., 1993, Particlefluid contacting in circulating fluidized beds, presented at
the 4th International Conference on Circulating Fluidized
Beds, Pittsburgh, 1 5 August 1993.
Li, J. and Kwauk, M., 1994, Particle-Fluid Two-Phase
Flow--the Energy-minimization Multi-scale Method. Metallurgical Industry Press, Beijing.
Li, J., Kwauk, M. and Reh, L., 1992, Role of energy minimization in gas/solid fluidization. In Fluidization V l l (edited
by O. E. Potter and D. J. Nicklin), p. 83. Engineering
Foundation, New York.
Li, J., Tung, Y. and Kwauk, M., 1988, Multi-scale modeling
and method of energy minimization in particle-fluid twophase flow. In Circulating Fluidized Bed Technology, Vol.
II (edited by P. Basu and J. F. Large), p. 89. Pergamon,
Oxford.
Nicolis, G., 1994 (personal communication).
Nicolis, G. and Prigogine, I. 1977, Self-Organization in
Nonequilibrium Systems, for Dissipative Structures to Order Through Fluctuations. J. Wiley, New York.
Prigogine, I., 1967, Introduction to Thermodynamics of Irreversible Processes. Interscience Publishers, New York.