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Report of a Symposium on Mechanics of Fluidized Beds

Fluidized beds are widely used in industry for carrying out a variety of chemical reactions and physical processes. Applications are frequently impeded by a lack of fundamental understanding of the mechanical behaviour of fluidized beds. Despite intensive experimental and theoretical study over the last four decades, there are still many aspects of fluidized beds and related fluid—particle systems that remain obscure. Further work is needed to understand interactions between the particles, influence of particle physical properties, development of non-obtrusive experimental techniques, and study of high-velocity beds and of novel-geometry beds in which particulate solids interact with interstitial fluid. An international symposium was held at Stanford University on 1–4 July 1991 to discuss recent developments and the current state of knowledge and understanding of the mechanical behaviour of fluidized beds and related fluid—particle systems. The symposium was sponsored by the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, and co-funded by the US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation and Electric Power Research Institute. The symposium was attended by 58 specialists representing academic institutions, industry and government research organizations in 11 countries. The diversity of background, coupled with differences in approach, ranging from purely theoretical to fully experimental, led to interesting exchanges where participants were often groping to understand the viewpoint of those involved. The result was frequently rewarding, occasionally perplexing, but certainly stimulating of thought and encouraging for further meetings of this nature. The scientific committee for the Symposium were G. K. Batchelor (Cambridge University), J. J. H. Brouwers (Trent University), J. Gibilaro (University College London), J. R. Grace (University of British Columbia), G. M. Homsy (Stanford University) (Chairman), R. Jackson (Princeton University), R. I. Nigmatulin (Moscow University) and W. Schneider (Techische Universität Wien). Each session began with an invited talk for one hour. This was followed by a series of 20-minute presentations. Participants were able at the end of each session to give brief (5 minute) unscheduled mini-presentations. Except for the latter, abstracts were submitted for the presentations, compiled by the organizers and distributed to participants. The meeting also included an informal workshop and a series of video and cinephotographic presentations not reported here. No formal proceedings of the meeting are being published; instead, this report is intended to summarize key findings and areas of discussion. The titles of all formal presentations are identified with asterisks in the list of References. The report is organized around common themes, and the sequence of presentations may not be that in which they were given. The authors have endeavoured to interpret and extract the essence of the presentations, and apologize if any of the presentations have been misinterpreted or overlooked.