Re: Fluidised Bed

Roger Books wrote in reply to me:

> > (Under some very special conditions you might get a "fluid bed"-like
case
> > where the dirt is less viscous than water, but that's not very
likely -

>Isn't this what quick-sand is? You end up with particles of sand
>"lubricated" with water.

to which Richard Kirke replied:

>Fluidised beds are not solids lubricated by water, they are solids 
>suspended in a gas with enough energy that the individual crystals
behave 
>like a fluid (gas or liquid) this can be used to dry powders btw.

Exactly (thanks for providing the English term, BTW!). A gas with enough

energy, like eg. the air blown downwards by the lifting fans of a GEV.
The 
solid rock below the dust needs to have a pretty strange shape in order
to 
shape the gas flows such that you get the fluidising effect, but it is 
theoretically possible for it to occur. (Ie., it is theoretically
possible 
to design a fluidised bed which is blown from above... not very
efficient, 
of course :-/ )

Later,

Oerjan
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."