Dynamically structured bubbling in vibrated gas-fluidized granular materials

Abstract

The dynamics of granular materials are critical to many natural and industrial processes; granular motion is often strikingly similar to flow in conventional liquids. Food, pharmaceutical, and clean energy processes utilize bubbling fluidized beds, systems in which gas is flowed upward through granular particles, suspending the particles in a liquid-like state through which gas voids or bubbles rise. Here, we demonstrate that vibrating these systems at a resonant frequency can transform the normally chaotic motion of these bubbles into a dynamically structured configuration, creating reproducible, controlled motion of particles and gas. The resonant frequency is independent of particle properties and system size, and a simple harmonic oscillator model captures this frequency. Discrete particle simulations show that bubble structuring forms because of rapid, local transitions between solid-like and fluid-like behavior in the grains induced by vibration. Existing continuum models for gas–solid flows struggle to capture these fluid–solid transitions and thus cannot predict the bubble structuring. We propose a constitutive relationship for solids stress that predicts fluid–solid transitions and hence captures the experimental structured bubbling patterns. Similar structuring has been observed by oscillating gas flow in bubbling fluidized beds. We show that vibrating bubbling fluidized beds can produce a more ordered structure, particularly as system size is increased. The scalable structure and continuum model proposed here provide the potential to address major issues with scale-up and optimal operation, which currently limit the use of bubbling fluidized beds in existing and emerging technologies.