화학공학소재연구정보센터
Chemical Engineering & Technology, Vol.38, No.12, 2207-2216, 2015
Digital Image Processing Technique to Investigate the Hydrodynamics of an Airlift Reactor with Double Downcomer
Digital image processing, an innovative cost-effective technique, was employed to investigate the hydrodynamics of a rectangular internal loop airlift reactor with double downcomer. The whole reactor was divided into two downcomers and a riser by means of two vertical blades to achieve a new geometry. Air and water served as gas and liquid media. Experimental measurements were performed by visualizing the concentration of a colored tracer by a digital camera. The captured successive images at specified time intervals were analyzed by the ImageJ software to turn images into quantifiable data. For four reactor geometries, the residence time distribution curves in individual sections and the liquid mixing performance were determined by this noninvasive method. The speed of this technique to capture real-time data of flow patterns may be one of the most important concerns for imaging multiphase flows in process industries.