HYDRODYNAMICS OF FLUIDIZATION: SUPERCOMPUTER GENERATED VS. EXPERIMENTAL BUBBLES.

The IIT hydrodynamic computer model for fluidization in a two dimensional bed with a jet was used to generate movies for two particle sizes using a coarse and a fine mesh. For 500 mu m sand, there was bubble splitting at a jet velocity of 5. 7 m/sec in both the experiment and in the simulation. For 800 mu m glass beads, computer generated bubbles using a fine computational mesh closely resembled experimental bubbles in their shape but were somewhat larger than corresponding bubbles restrained by walls in a plastic bed.