Mr. Alex C. Hoffmann of the Stratingh Institute for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering states: “Whether a material can be fluidized at all is the question: if it is fine or sticky, the bed will be cohesive. It will then tend to form channels through which the aeration gas will escape rather than being dispersed through the interstices supporting the particles. In the other extreme: if the particles are too
large and heavy the bed will not fluidize well either, but tend to be very turbulent and form a spout.” He goes on to present classification of fluidization by Geldart by use of the chart shown below. On this chart, the x-axis is the average particle diameter and the y-axis is the bulk density of the bed.