Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, Vol.96, No.1, 285-296, 2018
Drop behaviour characteristics in different operating regimes in an L-shaped pulsed sieve-plate column
In this study, the influence of different operating regimes on drop behaviour in an L-shaped pulsed sieve-plate column has been investigated and the effects of pulsation intensity and phase superficial velocities on drop diameters are evaluated. The toluene-water system with 0.03L/L (3vol%) acetone as a mass transfer agent is used. Experimental observations reveal that with increasing pulsation intensity, drop sizes slightly decrease and by reaching to the end of mixer-settler regime, they significantly decrease followed by a mild decrease in the dispersion regime. Moreover, it is observed that mean drop size firstly varies inversely as both phase superficial velocities change, while it slightly increases with further increase in superficial velocities. Finally, some of the most recommended correlations are compared to the experimental data. It is revealed that these correlations show the highest deviation in the lower end of the mixer-settler regime (>40%), while in the dispersion regime it becomes <15%, indicating that they are only applicable in the region of practical regimes. Accordingly, two of these correlations are modified in order to cover different operating regimes by means of two correlations proposed to predict the transition regime in each section of the column. The AARE values of the modified correlations are found to be <14.7%.