6

Gas Distributor and Plenum Design in Fluidized Beds

S. B. Reddy Karri
Particulate Solid Research, Inc., Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

Joachim Werther
Technical University Hamburg-Harburg, Hamburg, Germany

INTRODUCTION

The gas distributor (also called a grid) in a uidized

bed reactor is intended to induce a uniform and stable
uidization across the entire bed cross section, prevent
nonuidized regions on the grid, operate for long periods (years) without plugging or breaking, minimize
weepage of solids into the plenum beneath the grid,
minimize attrition of the bed material, and support
the weight of the bed material during startup and shutdown. In practice, grids have taken a variety of forms,
a few of which are discussed in subsequent pages.
Whatever the physical form, all are fundamentally
classiable in terms of the direction of gas entry:
upward, laterally, or downward. The choice depends
on prevailing process conditions, mechanical feasibility, and cost. In the past, grid design has been more of
an art than a science. However, more recent studies
now allow grid design based on scientic principles.

clean can be at, concave, convex, or double dished;

ports are easily shrouded.

2.2

2.1

TYPES OF GRIDS

Possible Disadvantages
Bed weepage to plenum; can be subject to buckling or
thermal distortion; requires peripheral seal to vessel
shell; requires support over long spans; high pressure
drop required if weepage during operation is to be
minimized
Bubble Caps and Nozzles (Laterally Directed
Flow)

Perforated Plates (Upwardly Directed Flow)

Main Advantages

Main Advantages
Simple fabrication; most common; inexpensive; easy to
modify hole size; easy to scale up or down; easy to

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Depending on the design, weeping is reduced or totally

avoided; good turndown ratio; can incorporate caps as
stiening members; can support internals.

edge of the cap. The separation distance sbc is responsible for the sealing eect of the bubble cap.
2.3 Sparger (Laterally or Downwardly Directed
Flow)
Main Advantages

Possible Disadvantages
Expensive; dicult to avoid stagnant regions; more
subject to immediate bubble merger; dicult to
clean; dicult to modify; not advisable for sticky
solids; requires peripheral seal; ports not easily
shrouded.
Details of some nozzles that are currently used in
circulating uidized beds (CFB) combustors are shown
in Fig. 1 (VGB, 1994). There are signicant dierences
between bubble caps (No. 7 in Fig. 1) and nozzles (No.
1 in Fig. 1) with respect to the prevention of solids
back ow: in the case of nozzles, the high velocity of
the gas jet prevents the solids from owing back into
the wind box. On the other hand, in the case of the
bubble cap design, the gas owing out of the bubble
cap into the bed has a rather low velocity. In this case,
the backow of solids is avoided by letting the gas ow
downward from the holes in the inner tube to the lower

Can minimize weeping; good turndown ratio; low pressure drop; can support internals; can undergo thermal
expansion without damage; ports are easily shrouded;
well suited to multilevel uid injection; solids can ow
from above the grid to below.

Possible Disadvantages
Deuidized solids beneath the grid; can be a less
forgiving mechanical design.

Figure 1 Distributors and nozzles used in large circulating uidized bed combustors. (After VGB, 1994.)

Copyright 2003 by Taylor & Francis Group LLC

2.4

Conical Grids (Laterally Directed Flow)

Main Advantages
Promotes solid mixing; prevents stagnant solids
buildup; minimizes solids segregation. Facilitates the
easy discharge of solids.

Possible Disadvantages
Dicult to construct; requires careful design to ensure
good gas distribution; requires high pressure drop for
good gas distribution.
2.5

Pierced Sheet Grids (Laterally Directed Flow)

Produced by punching holes in a relatively thin plate.

Holes are of a semielliptical shape with slanting,
strongly conical openings in the direction of entry. It
is primarily used in uid bed drying applications.
Holes can be oriented in such a way to promote certain
mixing patterns or drive the solids toward discharge
nozzle.
Main Advantages
Promotes solid mixing; prevents stagnant solids
buildup. Facilitates discharge of most of the solids.
The holes are angled so that the grids can be nonweeping for coarse solids.

Copyright 2003 by Taylor & Francis Group LLC

Possible Disadvantages
Dicult to construct, facilitates only small hole sizes,
requires reinforcement underneath the sheet to support
the bed.
Among the foregoing advantages and limitations,
the designer must select those most pertinent or critical
to the process application. There are, for example,
instances in which solids below the grid level are tolerable, where grid thermal expansion is signicant,
where bed solids are very friable, where pressure
drop, and therefore the cost of compressive horsepower, is critical, where solids are sticky and must
be kept in motion throughout, where internal impellers
or stirrers must be provided, or where grids are
expected to have a short life due to corrosion. These
and many other specics have dictated a host of design
variations, some of which are illustrated below. It
should be emphasized that each application requires
thoughtful engineering consideration before nal
design selection.

3
3.1

GRID DESIGN CRITERIA

Jet Penetration

Gas owing from the grid holes can take the form of
either a series of bubbles or a permanent jet, depending
on system parameters and operating conditions.
However, a permanent jet prevails for most industrial
conditions. Jet penetration is one of the most important design parameters since it helps in
1. Determining how far to keep the bed internals,
such as feed nozzles, heat exchanger tubes, etc.,
away from the grid to minimize erosion of
internals.
2. Deciding on grid design parameters such as
hole size and the gas jet velocity required to
achieve a certain jetting region.
3. Minimizing or maximizing particle attrition at
grids.
Knowlton and Hirsan (1980) reported that the jet
penetration for upwardly directed jets uctuated
greatly. Karri (1990) noted that jet penetration can
vary as much as 30% for upwardly directed jets.
However, the jet emanating from a downwardly directed grid hole is stable, and its penetration length does
not signicantly uctuate with time. Figure 2 indicates
jet penetration congurations for jets oriented
upwardly, horizontally, and downwardly. According

Figure 2 Jet penetrations at grid holes for dierent orientations.

to Karri, the jet penetrations for various orientations

can be approximately related by:
Lup  2Lhor  3Ldown

There are numerous jet penetration correlations (Zenz,

1969; Shakhova, 1968; Merry, 1971; Yang and
Keairns, 1979; Knowlton and Hirsan, 1980; Yates et
al., 1986; Blake et al., 1990; Roach, 1993) in the literature. Massimilla (1985) and Karri (1990) have shown
that the jet penetrations predicted by these correlations
can vary by a factor of 100 or more. Among them,
Merrys correlation for horizontal jets was shown
(Karri, 1990; Chen and Weinstein, 1993; Roach,
1993) to give reliable predictions, although this correlation was derived for horizontal jets issuing into an
incipiently uidized bed, which is not exactly the same
situation as for a grid jet. Merrys correlation to calculate the penetration of horizontal jets is
rg;h Uh2
Lhor
5:25
dh
rp 1  emf gdp

!0:4

rg;b
rp

in the jetting zone near the grid, otherwise the internals

could be severely eroded.
3.2 Grid Pressure Drop Criteria
For a grid, achieving equal distribution of gas ow
through many parallel paths requires equal resistances
and sucient resistance to equal or exceed the maximum value of any unsteady state pressure uctuation.
It has been determined experimentally that the head
of solids in some uidized beds above an upwardly
directed grid port can vary momentarily by as much
as 30%. This is due to large uctuations in the jet
penetration for an upwardly directed jet, as discussed
in the previous section. The equivalent variation downstream of a downwardly directed port is less than 10%.
Thus as a rule of thumb, the criteria for good gas
distribution based on the direction of gas entry are
(Karri, 1990):

!0:2

dp 0:2
dh

1. For upwardly and laterally directed ow:

Pgrid  0:3Pbed
2

The jet penetration lengths for upwardly and downwardly directed jets can be calculated from Eq. (1).
These equations take into account the eects of pressure and temperature on jet penetration. Knowlton
and Hirsan (1980) and Yates et al. (1986) found that
the jet penetration increases signicantly with system
pressure. In addition, Findlay and Knowlton (1985)
found that the jet penetration decreases with increasing
system temperature. Bed internals should not be placed

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2. For downwardly directed ow

Pgrid  0:1Pbed

and
3. Under no circumstances should the pressure
drop across a large-scale commercial grid be
less than 2500 Pa, i.e.,
Pgrid  2; 500 Pa

Several investigators (Hiby, 1964; Zuiderweg, 1967;

Whitehead, 1971; Siegel, 1976; Mori and Moriyama,
1978) have found the ratio of distributor pressure drop
to bed pressure drop to be in the range of 0.015 to 0.4.
If turndown is desired, the grid pressure drop
criteria (Eqs. 3 and 4) should apply at the minimum
gas ow rate. This can be a problem for circulating
uidized bed combustors, since this means that under
full load the grid pressure drop will be unacceptably
high. Also, if the grid is curved, i.e., concave, convex,
or conical, the criterion must apply with respect to the
lowest hole on the grid. Take an example of a uid bed
with curved grid, as shown in Fig. 3.
A pressure balance across the curved grid can be
written as
Ph (Highest hole Ph (Lowest hole)
rB g Hhigh  Hlow

i.e.,
Ph (Highest hole Ph (Lowest hole
480  9:8  0:9
Ph (Lowest hole 4235 Pa
7
Therefore the lowest grid hole has the lowest pressure
drop, and hence the pressure drop criterion must apply
with respect to the lowest hole on the grid.

Figure 3 A typical uid bed showing a curved perforated plate.

Copyright 2003 by Taylor & Francis Group LLC

3.3

Design Equations

The following equations can be used to design perforated plates, spargers, and bubble cap types of grids:
Pressure drop across the grid:
Pgrid KgrB LB

Pgrid  2; 500 Pa

where K 0:3 for upward and lateral gas entry and 0.1
for downward gas entry.
The gas velocity through the grid hole (orice equation):
s
2Pgrid
Uh Cd
rg;h

The orice discharge coecient, Cd , is typically about

0.6 for gas owing through an orice in a pipe (for a
ratio of orice diameter to pipe diameter in the range
of 0 to 0.2). This value of the orice coecient is for a
sharp-edged orice. However, grids are not sharp
edged, and the orice coecient is then greater than
0.6. A typical value of Cd for a grid hole is about 0.8.
Actually, the value of Cd depends on the grid plate
thickness and the hole pitch. It can be calculated
from Fig. 4 (Karri, 1991).
Volumetric ow rate of gas:
QN

pdh2
U
4 h

10

number of grid holes per m2 should be  10. In practice, the number of grid holes per square meter should
be greater than 20.
3.3.2

Hole Layout

To increase the uniformity of uidization, it is common to lay out the holes in triangular or square pitch,
as shown in Fig. 5. All the holes in a grid with triangular pitch are equidistant. This is not the case for a
grid with square pitch. Triangular pitch will also result
in more holes per unit area.
The relationship between the grid hole pitch, Lh ,
and the number hole density (holes per unit area of
the bed), Nd , depends on whether the holes are laid
out in triangular or square pitch.
3.4 Additional Criteria for Sparger Grids
Figure 4 Grid hole discharge coecient design chart.

3.3.1

Hole Size

To increase the gas residence time in the bed, it is

desirable to introduce the greatest number of small
gas bubbles as possible into the bed. This can be
achieved by maximizing N at the expense of dh in
Eq. (10) (within the limits of mechanical, cost, and
scaleup constraints). To minimize stagnant zones, the

Additional distribution criteria are used for sparger

grids. To keep the pipe header pressure drop down
to acceptable levels and to ensure good gas distribution, the following criteria (Karri, 1990) should be met:
1. The manifold should be sized based on the
following equation:
D2m
Nh dh2

!2
>5

Figure 5 The relationship between hole density and grid hole pitch for both triangular and square pitch.

Copyright 2003 by Taylor & Francis Group LLC

11

The parameters in Eq. (11) are dened in Fig.

6. Eq. (11) ensures that the pressure drop in the
manifold is negligible compared to the pressure
drop in the holes, which are determining the
grid pressure drop.
Similarly, the main header pipe should be
sized based on the equation
D2head
Nm D2m

!2
>5

12

2. In some instances, two to three dierent hole

size are used on a given manifold to get better
gas distribution.
3. The gas velocity in the header/manifold pipe
should be < 25 m=s for best distribution.
4. Holes should not be located closer than one
Dm from any sharp bend or tee in the
header/manifold to prevent solids from being
sucked into the manifolds due to the vena
contracta eect.
3.5

Port Shrouding or Nozzle Sizing

Shrouds are generally placed around grid holes to

reduce the velocity at the gassolid interface and
reduce particle attrition (de Vries et al., 1972).
Shrouds simply consist of short pipes centered over
the smaller grid holes that have been selected in size
and number to operate at a hole velocity dened by
Eq. (9).
To be eective, shrouds must be long enough to
contain the expanding (11 included angle) gas jet
leaving the grid orice (Karri, 1991).

As can be seen from Fig. 7, the minimum shroud

length should be:
Lmin

Ds  dh
2 tan 5:5

13

In practice, it is prudent to increase Lmin by a factor of

50 to 100%. A shroud length less than Lmin causes
signicantly more erosion and attrition than no shroud
at all. Signicant attrition can also occur if the shroud
is not centered over the smaller hole.
The nozzle or shroud details inside a sparger pipe
grid are illustrated in Fig. 8.
If properly sized and installed, particle attrition is
reduced by a factor (Karri, 1990) calculated from

1:6
particle attrition without shrouds
Ds
14

dh
particle attrition with shrouds

PARTICLE ATTRITION AT GRIDS

Solids immediately surrounding the gas jets issuing

from the grid are ingested into the jets. These particles
are accelerated and collide with the particles near the
tip of the jet. Figure 9 depicts how the particles
are picked up and slammed into a uidized, yielding
bed for an upwardly directed jet. However, downwardpointing jets generally issue into a nonuidized area of
particles. Therefore particles picked up by downwardly
directed jets, issuing into a nonyielding unaerated bed,
result in a greater degree of particle attrition than those
for upwardly directed jets. Karri (1990) reported that
downwardly directed jets have approximately twice the
steady-state attrition rate as that of upwardly directed
jets. The attrition rates for upwardly and laterally
directed jets are essentially the same. Grid jet attrition
is discussed in greater detail in Chapter 8 of this book.

5
5.1

EROSION
Erosion at Bed Walls and Internals

Erosion in the grid region is primarily due to highvelocity submerged jets impinging on distributor
parts, bed walls, or bed internals. Therefore one should
estimate the jet penetration heights for a given grid
design and check for the following:
Figure 6 Manifold sparger grid showing the denitions of
various parameters.

Copyright 2003 by Taylor & Francis Group LLC

1. Bed internals should not be placed in the jetting zone near the grid, otherwise the internals
could be severely eroded.

Figure 7 (a) Diverging free jet; (b) shroud too short to contain the jet; (c) minimum shroud length required to contain jet.

2. Nozzles should not be located any closer than

half the jet penetration height from the bed
wall.
The basic equation for erosion rate is of the form
(Karri, 1990)
Erosion /

5.2

Ke r2g;h Uh3 dh2 dp3 r2p

15

Erosion at Distributor Nozzles

Erosion in the nozzle or orices is often associated with

weepage of solids. This can be avoided by carefully

Figure 8 Shroud design for a sparger grid.

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designing a grid with the proper pressure drop criteria,

as presented in Sec. 3.2. Poorly designed bubble caps
tend to have erosion problems due to the secondary
circulation of solids. Therefore bubble caps should be
designed to minimize secondary circulation of solids.
Erosion has often been experienced at the nozzles
used in CFB combustors (Fig. 1). A dominant mechanism leading to erosion is the pressure-induced gas ow
reversal that will be discussed below in Sec. 6. Solids
which have entered into the nozzle during a period of
ow reversal are entrained out once the gas ows at
high velocity in the outward direction again. The
entrained solids in the high-velocity ow in the nozzle
hole may cause severe erosion of the wall of the hole. A

Figure 9 The mechanism of particle attrition at a submerged jet.

second mechanism of erosion was observed by highspeed video in cold models (Hartge and Werther,
1998): even when the gas was owing out of the hole
into the bed, a region near the mouth of the orice
could be observed where the gas jet entrained particles
into the hole. These entrained particles caused erosion
at the outer edge of the hole. Figure 10 shows the
photography of a nozzle that had been painted in
black before the experiment. After 60 hours of operation, the erosion marks were clearly visible. They were
particularly obvious at the lower edges of the holes,
which is due to the fact that the jet issuing from a
horizontal bore tends to bend into the upward direction (see Fig. 2), which gives more surface area to
entrain solids at the lower edge of the hole.
6

Figure 10 Erosion marks around the gas outlet holes of

the nozzle with 5 mm diameter holes. (From Hartge and
Werther, 1998.)

shows measurements of the pressure drop between the

wind box and at a height of 0.3 m above the distributor
in a circulating uidized bed. The average pressure
drop of gas distributor and bed was about 40 mbar
during these measurements. As can be seen, sometimes
negative pressure drops occurred, i.e., the pressure at a
height of 0.3 m above the distributor was higher than

WEEPAGE OF SOLIDS

Solids weepage has been a major problem during the

development of circulating uidized bed (CFB)
combustors in the past two decades. Seemingly welldesigned nozzle grids experienced weepage to such an
extent that CFB boilers had to be shut down after
several days or weeks of operation, because most of
the bed inventory had wept through the grid. More
recent investigations (Hartge and Werther, 1998;
Karri, 1991) have revealed that pressure uctuations
in the dense bottom bed of the CFB riser may cause
the backow of solids through the grid hole. Figure 11

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Figure 11 Pressure ucutations measured in a circulating

uidized bed between the windbox and at a height of 0.3 m
above the distributor (riser diameter, 0.4 m; supercial gas
velocity, 3 m/s; solids mass ux, 22 kg/m2 s).

the pressure below the distributor. In such cases, gas

ow reversal occurs, which results in weepage of solids
into the nozzles (Fig. 12).
In order to prevent such a ow reversal, the design
pressure drop of the nozzle in the example of Fig. 11
should be roughly 20 mbar larger, i.e., the pressure
drop of the grid has to take into account the largest
possible pressure uctuations. These pressure drop
uctuations are signicantly higher for Group B particles with a wide particle size distribution which are
typical of CFB combustion. Another reason that
makes it dicult to keep the grid pressure drop always
higher than the largest pressure uctuations in the bed
is the necessity of frequent turndown operations for
CFB combustors. Reducing the load to 50% means a
reduction of the grid pressure drop to 25% of its value
at full load. In CFB combustion, the bubble cap design
of Fig. 1 (case 7) has shown to be more eective. Here
the solids have to be transported upwards in the annulus between the bubble cap and central tube against
gravity during the gas ow reversal. The solids are
prevented from entering the central tube if the separation length sbc is kept between 70 and 100 mm. Figure
13 shows solids inow during the period of gas ow
reversal.

EFFECTS OF TEMPERATURE AND

PRESSURE

System temperature and pressure aect the momentum

of grid jets via the gas density. The momentum of the
gas jets is proportional to rg;h Uh . When the tempera-

Figure 12 Solids owing into the nozzle shaft during gas

ow reversal.

Copyright 2003 by Taylor & Francis Group LLC

Figure 13 Solids owing into the cap during gas ow reversal.

ture is increased, the gas density decreases. For the

same gas jet velocity, this decreases the momentum
of the jets and therefore decreases the jet penetration
and the attrition at the grid. Similarly, when system
pressure is increased, gas density increases, gas jet
momentum increases, and therefore the jet penetration
and the attrition at the grid are increased.
8

PLENUM DESIGN

The plenum, or windbox, is the chamber immediately

below the grid. If the bed-pressure-drop-to-gridpressure-drop ratio is high enough, the plenum design
will probably not be too important. However, for the
case where this ratio is low, the plenum design may
determine whether the bed will operate satisfactorily.
The typical plenum designs showing various congurations for introducing gas into the plenum are
illustrated in Fig. 14. Common sense dictates that certain plenum designs be preferred over others. If the gas
enters the plenum from the bottom it is preferable that
the plenum have a large enough distance between the
outlet of the supply pipe and the grid to prevent the gas
from preferentially passing through the middle of the
grid. When gas enters a plenum from the side, it is
preferable to rout the gas to the middle of the plenum
(Fig. 14c) rather than have the supply pipe end at the
wall of the plenum. In addition, horizontal-to-vertical
down gas entry (Fig. 14c) is preferable over the
horizontal-to-vertical up gas entry (Fig. 14b).
If the gassolid or gasliquid suspension needs to be
introduced into the plenum, as for example in a polyethylene reactor and some FCC regenerators, it is

Figure 14

Dierent plenum congurations.

preferable to introduce the suspension at the lowest

point of the plenum (Fig. 14a,d,e) to minimize the
accumulation of solids or liquids in the regions inaccessible to reentrainment For two-phase systems, it
is preferable to have some sort of deection device
(Fig. 14d,e,f) between the outlet of the supply pipe
and the grid to prevent the solids from preferentially
passing through the middle of the grid due to their high
momentum. This preferential bypassing of solids
causes maldistribution of gas. In addition, the conguration of Figs. 14e and 14f are preferable over the
congurations of Figs. 14a,d.
9

POWER CONSUMPTION

Since the grid contributed a considerable fraction of

total pressure drop across a given uid bed system, it
is always important to estimate the power consumption of the blower that drives the gas through this
system. Suppose a stream of gas is to be compressed
from an initial pressure of P1 to a higher pressure of P2
to pump it through the entire uid-bed system. Using
thermodynamics for adiabatic reversible compression
with negligible kinetic and potential energy eects, the

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ideal shaft work to compress each kilogram of gas is

given by
P2
dP
16
Ws;ideal
P 1 rg
If an ideal gas behavior is assumed, then Eq. (16) transforms into
"

#
g1=g
g
P2
1
17
Ws;ideal
PQ
g  1 1 1 P1
or
Ws;ideal

"

g1=g #
g
P1
P2 Q 2 1 

P2
g1

18

Due to heat of compression, the raise in temperature

can be calculated from

g1=g
P
T2 T1 2
19
P1
where g ratio of specic heats of gas 1:67, 1.4, and
1.33 for monatomic, diatomic, and triatomic gases,
respectively.

However, for real operations with its frictional

losses, the actual work required is always greater
than the ideal and is given by
Ws;actual

Ws;actual
Z

20

Q Usup

pD2
p132
0:6
79:6 m3 =s
4
4

Determine the number of grid holes required:

where Z is the blower eciency, approximately given

by
Z 0:550.75
0:60.8
0:80.9

the same as in the bed. This may not be the case

in an actual plant.

for a turboblower
for a roots blower
for an axial blower or a twostage reciprocating compressor

Equation (20) can be used not only for power consumption but also to size the correct horse power
motor to drive the blower.
The actual temperature of gas leaving a well-insulated (adiabatic) but not 100% ecient compressor is
then calculated from
"

#
T1 P2 g1=g
1
21
T2 T1
Z1 P1

Since Q N

dh2
U
4 h

Therefore
N

Q 1
79:6 1
1:14

2
2
2
Uh pdh =4 88:6 pdh =4
dh

The hole density is

Nd

N
1:14
1
0:0086
2

2
2
p=4D
dh p=413
dh2

Determine the hole pitch for a triangular arrangement:

1
Lh p 11:59
dh
Nd sin 60
Downwardly Directed Gas Sparger Design

10

DESIGN EXAMPLES

10.1

FCC Grid Design

Example 1. A 13-m-ID bed of FCC catalyst

(dp 60 mm) 3 m deep is to operate at a supercial
gas velocity of 0.6 m/s. The bed density is 480 kg=m3 .
the density of the gas entering the bed is 0:64 kg=m3 .
Design the following grid types: (1) a at perforated
plate, and (2) concentric-ring type downow sparger.
Assume the grid thickness to be 0.025 m.
Solution.

Perforated Plate Design

Determine Pbed and Pgrid :

Pbed grB LB 9:8  480  3 14,112 Pa

Choose Pgrid to be 10% of Pbed

Pgrid 0:1Pbed 1,411 Pa 14:4 cm H2 O
1411 Pa is less than the minimum of 2500 Pa P
required for a grid. Therefore use Pgrid
2500 Pa.
r
2  2500
68 m=s
Uh 0:77
0:64
79:6 1
1:5
N

68 pdh2 =4 dh2
Various combinations of N and dh satisfy the pressure drop requirements for the two grid type as
shown in the table:

Choose Pgrid to be 30% of Pbed

Pgrid 0:3

Pbed 4,234 Pa

Determine the gas velocity through the grid holes

(assume a typical value for cd 0:77):
s
r
2Pgrid
2  4234
88:6 m=s
Uh C d
0:77
rg;h
0:64
Determine the volumetric gas ow rate at the conditions below the grid. For this example, assume
that the temperature of the gas below the grid is

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Number of holes (N)

dh
m
0.005
0.01
0.025
0.05

perforated plate downow sparger

45,600
11,400
1,824
456

60,000
15,000
2,400
600

To proceed with the design, it is necessary to select a

hole size (judgment call). For the purpose of this

example, a hole size of 0.025 m will be chosen to

compare the dierent grid types. This hole diameter does not result in an excessive number of
holes for both types of grids.
Check the value for Cd for the perforated plate:
Nd 13:8 holes=m2

and

Lh 0:29 m

t
0:025
1

dh 0:025

To determine the header-pipe size, rst determine

the maximum number of holes in ring section
supplied by a single eective entry of gas. If outermost ring is supplied by four gas entry points,
then the number of eective gas entry points is 8,
and the number of holes in each section of ring
No. 4 would be Nh 978=8 122. Then Eq. 11
gives
D2head
Nh dh2

From Fig. 3


Cd

Lh
dh

0:1

D2head
122  0:0252

0:96



0:025 0:1
Cd 0:96
0:29
0:75 vs. 0.77 (initial guess

There is a fairly good agreement between the initial

and calculated values for Cd . If not, one must
repeat the calculations using the calculated Cd
until both values agree.
Therefore, for a 0.025 m hole diameter, the
perforated plate has 1,824 holes arranged in a
triangular pitch of 0.29 m. The hole density is
13:8 hole=m2 .
For the sparger grids, it remains to determine the
sparger conguration and pipe-header size. Pipe
headers can be laid out in various congurations.
The design calculations will depend on the conguration one chooses.
Concentric-Ring Sparger. Consider for example,
a conguration of four concentric rings of 0.4 m diameter supplied by a number of gas entry points.
This design results in 2,401 holes.
Determine the hole pitch:
Lh

!2
>5
!2
>5

or

Summary. For an orice diameter of 0.025 m, the

downwardly directed concentric-ring sparger has
2,401 nozzles placed on four concentric rings.
The pitch is 0.04 m. Sometimes the holes are
staggered on the sparger pipe. Also it is a common practice to place two nozzles at a given cross
section as shown in Fig. 8.
Example 2. For the conditions of Example 1 of
perforated plate design, estimate the submerged jet
height in the uidized bed.
Solution. Perforated Plate
Uh 88:6 m=s

rg;h 0:64 kg=m3

rg;b 0:5 kg=m3

dp 60 mm

dh 0:025 m

rp 1440 kg=m3

N 1; 824
emf 0:42

Gas jet penetration depth using Merrys correlation

(Eq. 3.4.2) for horizontal jets
rg;h Uh2
Lhor
5:25
dh
rp 1  emf gdp

97:13
0:04 m
2401

Dhead > 0:41 m

!0:4

rg;b
rp

!0:2

dp 0:2
dh

Sparger Grid, Concentric Ring Type

Ring no.
(i)

Radius of each ring

(ri ), m

Length of each ring

(Li ) 2ri , m

% of total length

1
2
3
4
Total =

1.43
3.05
4.68
6.30

8.98
19.16
29.41
39.58
97.13

9.24
19.73
30.28
40.75

Copyright 2003 by Taylor & Francis Group LLC

Number of holes on each ring

(Ni )
222
474
727
978
2,401

Lhor

!0:4
0:64  88:62
5:25
14401  0:429:8  65  106
!0:2



0:5 0:2 65  106
 0:025 0:32 m
0:025
1440

From Eq. (1),

Lup  2Lhor  2  0:32  0:64 m
Example 3. For the conditions and the perforated plate dened in Example 1, design a shroud
having an ID twice that of the grid hole, i.e.,
DS 2dh 0:05 m
Solution.

Perforated Plate

The minimum length of the shroud should be

Lmin

0:05  0:025
0:13 m
2 tan 5:5

The gas jet velocity emanating from the shroud is



2
d
0:025 2
22:2 m=s
Uh;s Uh h 88:6
Ds
0:05
Particle attritions rate will be reduced by a factor
calculated from Eq. (14):

1:6
particle attrition without shrouds
Ds

Dh
particle attrition with shrouds



0:05 1:6

3:0
0:025
Thus adding a shroud to the grid reduces the attrition rate to 67% of the rate without a shroud.
10.2

Polyethylene Reactor Grid Design

Example 4. Design a at perforated-plate grid

for the polyethylene reactor schematically shown in
Fig. 15 and calculate the gas jet penetration depth.
Use a triangular pitch. System parameters are
Usup 0:5 m=s

rg;h 19:2 kg=m3

rg;b 17 kg=m3

rp 641 kg=m3

rB 272 kg=m3

Pgrid 0:4Pbed

dh 0:01 m

dp 508 mm

t 0:019 m

Copyright 2003 by Taylor & Francis Group LLC

emf 0:45

Figure 15 Schematic of polyethylene reactor.

Solution
Determine Pbed and Pgrid
Pbed grB LB 9:8  272  12:2 32,520 Pa
Pgrid 0:4Pbed 13,008 Pa
Determine the gas velocity through the grid hole
(trial and error). Assume Cd 0:8:
s
r
2Pgrid
2  13008
0:8
U h Cd
29:5 m=s
rg;h
19:2
Determine the volumetric ow rate of gas
Q Usup

pD2
p4:62
0:5
8:3 m3 =s
4
4

Determine the number of grid holes required:

N

Q
1
8:3
1

3582
Uh pdh2 =4 29:5 p=40:012

Hole density:
Nd

3582
215 holes/m2
p=44:62

Determine the hole pitch:

1
1
Lh p p 0:073 m
215 sin 60
Nd sin 60
Check the value for Cd :
t
0:019

1:9
dh
0:01

Pbed 15 kPa;
Pcyclonesfilters
Pgrid 6 kPa;
12 kPa; pressure at the exit of the filters 350 kPa.
Gas entering the compressor: T1 20 C; P1
101 kPaq; Q1 10 m3 =s.
Use Z 0:85; g 1:4
Solution
Determine compressor discharge pressure, P2 :

From Figure 3.4.4,

0:1
L
Cd h
0:98
dh
therefore



0:01 0:1
0:803  0:80 (great guess)
Cd 0:98
0:073
Gas jet penetration depth using Merrys correlation
[Eq. (2)] for horizontal jets:
!0:4
!0:2

rg;h Uh2
rg;b
dp 0:2
Lhor
5:25
dh
rp 1  emf gdp
rp
dh
Lhor

!0:4
19:2  29:52
5:25
6411  0:459:8  508  106
!0:2



17 0:2 508  106
 0:01 0:55 m
0:1
641

From Eq. (1),

Lup  2Lhor  2  0:55  1:1 m
Coalescence factor:
l

Lh
0:073

0:13 < 1
Lup =2 1:1=2

Therefore Jets coalesce. The low value of l indicates

that the bed of solids is probably suspended
above the coalesced jets. Therefore the solids
rarely come into contact with the grid. This
type of design reduces the chances of grid pluggage due to sticky polyethylene solids.
Summary: The perforated plate has 3,582 holes, each
of 0.01 m diameter, arranged in a triangular pitch
of 0.073 m. The hole density is 215 holes=m2 .
10.3

Power Consumption

Example 5. Determine the compressor power to

pass reactant gas into the plenum of the uid bed
system. Also calculate the temperature rise due to
heat of compression. The system parameters are

Copyright 2003 by Taylor & Francis Group LLC

P2 Pexit Pcyclonesfilters Pbed Pgrid

350 12 15 6 388 kPa
Determine ideal power consumption, Ws;ideal
"

#
g
P2 g1=g
Ws;ideal
1
PQ
g  1 1 1 P1
"

#

1:4
383 1:41=1:4
Ws;ideal
1
101  10
1:4  1
101
1638 kW
Determine actual power consumption, Ws;actual :
Ws;ideal 1638

Z
0:85
1927 kW (or 2587 hp)

Ws;actual

Determine the temperature rise, T2 :

"

#
T1 P2 g1=g
1
T2 T1
Z1 P1
"

#

293
383 1:41=1:4
T2 293
1
0:85 101
453 (or 180 C

NOMENCLATURE
Cd
dh
dp
D
Dhead
Dm
Ds
g
Hhigh
Hlow

=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=

discharge coecient; see Fig. 4

grid hole diameter, m
Sauter mean particle size, m
diameter of uid bed, m
diameter of the main header pipe, m
diameter of the manifold pipe, m
shroud or nozzle diameter, m
gravitational acceleration 9:8 m=s2
elevation of highest grid hole for curved grid,
m
= elevation of lowest grid hole for curved grid,
m

Ke
LB
Ldown
Lh
Lhor
Lmin
Ls
Lup
N
Nd
Nh
Nm
P1
P2
Q
Q1
Q2
t
T1
T2
Uh
Usup
Ws;actual
Ws;ideal
a
g
rB
rg;b
rg;h
rp
emf
y
Pbed
Pgrid

= grid pressure-drop coecient; see Eq. (8)

0.3 for upward gas entry;
0.1 for lateral and downward gas entry
= erosion constant, Eq. (15)
= operating bed depth, m
= jet penetration for downwardly directed jet, m
= grid hole pitch, cm
= jet penetration for horizontally directed jet, m
= minimum shroud or nozzle length, m
= shroud or nozzle length, m
= jet penetration for upwardly directed jet, m
= number of grid holes
= number of hole density (holes per unit area of
the bed), holes=m2
= maximum number of holes per manifold pipe
section supplied by gas entry
= number of manifolds on the main header
supplied by single gas entry point
= pressure of gas entering the blower, Pa
= pressure of gas leaving the blower, Pa
= total volumetric gas ow entering the grid,
m3 =s
= total volumetric gas ow entering the blower,
m3 =s
= total volumetric gas ow leaving the blower,
m3 =s
= grid thickness, m
= temperature of gas entering the blower,  K
= temperature of gas leaving the blower,  K
= velocity of gas through the grid hole, m/s
= supercial gas velocity, m/s
= actual power consumption due to shaft work,
W
= ideal power consumption due to shaft work,
W
= energy eciency factor
= ratio of specic heats of gas
= operating bed density, kg=m3
= density of gas at bed operating conditions,
kg=m3
= density of gas entering the grid hole (plenum
conditions), kg=m3
= particle density, kg=m3
= voidage at minimum uidizing conditions
= included angle of gas jet, degrees
= pressure drop across the dense bed, Pa
= pressure drop across the grid, Pa

Copyright 2003 by Taylor & Francis Group LLC

Ph

= pressure drop across the grid hole, Pa

= particle shape factor
= compressor eciency

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