Onset of Instability in Sheared Gas Fluidized Beds

The idea behind this work is to use the stabilizing effect of shear to homogenize bubbling gas fluidized beds. Essentially, we argue that, by increasing the shear, we increase the particle diffusivity, therefore enhancing the tendency of the particles to distribute uniformly in the bed. Although similar effects are known to play important roles in the diffusion of particles suspended in viscous liquids at very low Reynolds number, in this work we present the first evidence that this effect might be relevant also when the suspending fluid is a gas.