Elutriation and agglomerate size distribution in a silica nanoparticle vibro-fluidized bed

Fluidization of nanoparticle agglomerates is a promising technique to process nanoparticles. However, possible elutriation small may cause significant loss bed material. To obtain the behavior under stable operation, in this study fraction silica measured vibro-fluidized bed, which operated for several hours. Among conditions with different fluidizing gas velocities, Ug, and vibration strength, Λ, lowest around 5% after 7-hour fluidization. The increases significantly while varies slightly Λ. help elucidating behavior, at three locations (bed surface, splash zone, outlet) are sampled their size distributions determined. rate constant found be much smaller than literature results ordinary particles, reasons discussed detail. Finally, an empirical correlation considering distribution proposed fit study.