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This work marks the third in a series of experiments that were in a semi-circular, gas-fluidized bed with side jets. In this work, the particles are 1 mm ceramic beads. The bed is operated just at and slightly above and below the minimum fluidization velocity and additional fluidization is provided by two high-speed gas located on the sides of the bed near the flat, front face of the unit. Two primary measurements are taken: high-speed video recording of the front of the bed and bed pressure drop from a tap in the back of the bed. PIV is used to determine particle motion, characterized as a mean Froude number, from the high-speed video. A CFD-DEM model of the bed is presented using the recently released MFIX-Exa code. Four model subvariants are considered using two methods of representing the jets and two drag models, both of which are calibrated to exactly match the experimentally measured minimum fluidization velocity. Although it is more difficult to determine the jet penetration depths in a straightforward manner as in the previous works using Froude number contours, the CFD-DEM results compare quite well to the PIV measurements. Unfortunately, the good agreement of the solids-phase is overshadowed by significant disagreement in the gas-phase data. Specifically, the predicted time-averaged standard deviation of the pressure drop is found to be over an order of magnitude larger than measured. Due to the low value of the measurements, just 1% of the mean bed pressure drop, it seems possible that the data is in error. On the other hand, the model may not be accurately capturing pressure attenuation through an under-fluidized region in the back of the bed. Without the possibility additional experiments to test the validity of the data, this work is simply being reported as is without being able to indicate which, either the simulation or the experiment, is more correct.

We present our analysis on micro-rheology of a bench-scale pulsed fluidized bed, which represents a weakly confined system. Non-linear gas-particle and particle-particle interactions resulting from pulsed flow are associated with harmonic and sub-harmonic modes. While periodic structured bubble patterns are observed at the meso-scale, particle-scale measurements reveal anomolous diffusion in the driven granular medium. We use single-particle tracks to analyze ergodicity and ageing properties at two pulsing frequencies having remarkably different meso-scale features. The scaling of ensemble-averaged mean squared displacement is not unique. The distribution of time-averaged mean squared displacements is non-Gaussian, asymmetric and has a finite trivial contribution from particles in crowded quasi-static surroundings. Results indicate weak ergodicity breaking which along with ageing characterize the non-stationary and out-of-equilibrium dynamics., Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures

Periodic fluidization of solids in a gas medium can generate structured bubbling patterns. This phenomenon has been successfully reproduced in fluidized bed systems called pulsed-fluidized beds, known for their efficient mixing and tunability. The resulting pattern depends on particle properties, dimensions of the bed, mean inlet velocity, bed height, and amplitude and frequency of pulsing. It is however important to understand the changes in granular rheology associated with bubbling patterns. In the experimental work presented, we report on the results from a small-scale quasi-two-dimensional pulsed-fluidized bed. Proper Orthogonal Decomposition analysis applied to Particle Tracking Velocimetry data reveals a redistribution of energy between the harmonic and sub-harmonic modes as the inlet gas frequency is decreased. The change in bubbling pattern is accompanied by a change in granular dynamics due to the dominant modes of particle-phase motion.