Magnetically assisted gas–solid fluidization in a tapered vessel: First report with observations and dimensional analysis

The article presents first experimental results on gas–solid fluidization in a tapered bed in presence of an external transverse magnetic field that creates a novel branch in magnetically assisted fluidization. Phase diagrams similar to those used to describe cylindrical beds have been created to distinguish the bed regimes occurring under the action of two principle macroscopic variables such as field intensity and gas flow rate. A detailed analysis and parallelism to the bed behaviour exhibited by non‐magnetic spouted beds of cohesive particles have been performed. Principle process variables such as bed depth, field intensity, particle size, cone angle have been detected. A dimensional analysis utilizing a “pressure transform” of the initial set of variables has been applied to develop scaling relationships. Examples of scaling experimental data pertinent to the minimum spouting point and involving the magnetic granular Bond number have been developed.