Nonlinear mechanics of fluidization of beds of spherical particles

Abstract

Experiments on fluidization with water of spherical particles falling against gravity in columns of rectangular cross-section are described. All of them are dominated by inertial effects associated with wakes. Two local mechanisms are involved: drafting and kissing and tumbling into stable cross-stream arrays. Drafting, kissing and tumbling are rearrangement mechanisms in which one sphere is captured in the wake of the other. The kissing spheres are aligned with the stream. The streamwise alignment is massively unstable and the kissing spheres tumble into more stable cross-stream pairs of doublets which can aggregate into larger relatively stable horizontal arrays. Cross-stream arrays in beds of spheres constrained to move in two dimensions are remarkable. These arrays may even coalesce into aggregations of close-packed spheres separated by regions of clear water. A somewhat weaker form of cooperative motion of cross-stream arrays of rising spheres is found in beds of square cross-section where the spheres may move freely in three dimensions. Horizontal arrays rise where drafting spheres fall because of greater drag. Aggregation of spheres seems to be associated with relatively stable cooperative motions of horizontal arrays of spheres rising in their own wakes.