Solid-Liquid Fluidized beds in Narrow Tubes

During my Ph.D. at the University of Campinas under the supervision of Dr. Erick de Moraes Franklin, I worked with solid-liquid fluidized beds in narrow tubes. This specific case was an exciting and rich problem because of the confinement effects which create quasi-1D waves within the granular bed. Our studies were helpful to connect various branches of engineering sciences and soft matter physics; from understanding the mechanisms that lead to the formation of the quasi-1D waves to connecting their behavior with the formation of glass and jamming in granular materials.

Plug Regime

The confinement created by the narrow tube leads to the formation of alternating high- and low-compactness regions, known as granular plugs and bubbles, which have characteristic lengths and celerities.

Layer Inversion

Confinement effects caused by the tube walls change the way in which individual particles move. From the numerical simulations, we did find the importance of using the virtual mass force, especially for those cases involving liquids.

Crystallization and Jamming

For very narrow beds, the grain characteristics determines the bed behavior under defluidizing and slight fluidizing conditions. This is an important characteristic of highly confined beds that had been unknown until now.