Borescopic particle image velocimetry in bubbling gas–solid fluidized beds

In this work, the borescopic particle image velocimetry (BPIV) technique was applied to a bubbling gas–solid fluidized bed, and the results were compared with published positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) measurement data. Before performing the experiments, the sensitivity of the BPIV results to the illumination power, light reflectivity of the particles, and location of the borescope was also investigated. The BPIV and PEPT results were in fair agreement; however, some discrepancies were observed. The difference between the two sets of results were mainly caused by the intrusiveness of BPIV, the fact that the local solids volume fraction was not accounted for in the BPIV analysis, and the intrinsic differences of these two methods. Therefore, measurement of the local solids volume fraction with the borescope is highly recommended for further development of the BPIV method, which will also enable measurement of the local solids mass fluxes inside dense gas–solid fluidized beds.