Settling and fluidisation characteristics of carrot particles in water

The fluidisation and settling characteristics of cylindrical particles have been studied. Relationships have been established using carrots and plastic cylinders, namely PVC and nylon 6:6. Logarithmic plots of fluid velocity versus voidage enabled the minimum transportation (terminal) velocity for carrot particles to be determined. Such data are of use to carrot processing plants. At the terminal velocity a resistance coefficient, Cr, has been determined and correlated against the sphericity factor, phi(s), by the equation: log Cr = 0.77 + 4.75 log phi(s) In the fluidisation studies a modified Ergun equation was derived relating the friction factor, fv, to the Reynolds number, REde, and voidage, epsilon. log fv = 1.44 + 0.53 log Re/(1 - epsilon) Settling velocities were determined for the three materials and for different aspect ratios.