Stability of the liquid-fluidized magnetically stabilized fluidized bed

Rosensweig's (1979) analysis of the stability of gas-fluidized magnetically stabilized fluidized beds (MSFBs) with voidage perturbations is modified to include terms dependent on the fluid density. This allows the stability analysis to be applicable to liquid-fluidized MSFBs, which have potential use in liquid chromatography. Results show that in systems where the Fluid density is not insignificant when compared to the solid-phase density, the difference in density between the two phases should be used when normalizing the magnetization required to achieve stability. Comparisons between theory and experiment show that although the present analysis improves on Rosensweig's analysis, it still does not give reliable, quantitative predictions of stability, behavior. It is suggested that for liquid-fluidized MSFBs, stability to particle velocity perturbations, rather than to voidage perturbations, is more relevant to chromatographic applications wherein the purpose of magnetic stabilization is to prevent particle mixing as opposed to preventing the occurrence of bubbling and slugging observed in gas-fluidized beds.