An application of factor analysis in wet particle systems: Rolling friction and cohesive liquid controlling performances

Fluidized beds are widely used in many chemical engineering industrials, and flow behaviors of multiphase flow have always been the focus of research. This paper presented how rolling friction and cohesive liquid affected wet particle flow behaviors by experiments, simulation, and data analyses. Experiments were conducted for applying a suitable range of rolling friction coefficient. A discrete element method, well validated by comparing experimental data, was developed and demonstrated that μ_r = 0.125 was a good choice for particles applied in this work. Data from numerical results were well analyzed by factor analysis, where explained interaction effect of two factors on fluidized beds. Factor analyses reflected that dominating factor and interaction effect on flow behaviors vary instead of single control factor in different regions. These findings have clearly showed importance and effect of microscopic parameter collision characteristics on the hydrodynamic behaviors in fluidized beds. Thus, rolling friction constitutes should be carefully considered to ensure that theoretical results are accurate.