Analysis on pressure signals from a polyethylene gas-solid fluidised bed

Abstract

This work considered the use of pressure measurements as a means to assess fluidisation behaviour in gas-solid fluidised beds with a polyethylene resin as the solid phase. The beds used in this study ranged in diameter from 10 to 30 cm and were operated at ambient conditions. Two polyethylene resins were used as the solid phases and air was used as the gas phase. Pressure measurements were recorded at 3 or 4 locations along the column wall, depending on the initial static bed height of solids in the column. Statistical, spectral and chaotic analysis was performed on the pressure measurements off-line. It was found that each of the techniques produced results comparable to those seen in literature for similar analysis techniques. The chaotic analysis technique developed by van Ommen et al. (2000) was found to be the most applicable for online analysis of fluidisation behaviour in polyethylene gas-solid fluidised beds.