An improved model for estimating fractal structure of silica nano-agglomerates in a vibro-fluidized bed

Abstract

A study has been conducted to determine the effects of operating conditions such as vibration frequency, vibration amplitude on the fractal structure of silica (SiO2) nanoparticle agglomerate in a vibro-fluidized bed. An improved model was proposed by assimilation of fractal theory, Richardson-Zaki equation and mass balance. This model has been developed to predict the properties of nanoparticle agglomerate, such as fractal dimension and its size. It has been found out the vibration intensity increase leads to a slight reduction in fractal dimension of agglomerate. This Paper is also indicated that the size of agglomerate has the same behavior as fractal dimension with respect to vibration intensity changes. This study demonstrated that the fractal dimension of Silica nanoparticle agglomerate is in the range of 2.61 to 2.69 and the number of primary particles in the agglomerate is in the order of 1010. The vibration frequency is more impressive than its amplitude on agglomerate size reduction. Calculated Minimum fluidization velocity by applying predicted agglomerate sizes and experimental data are acceptable fitted.