MINIMUM WETTING AND DISTRIBUTION RATES

IN FALLING FILM EVAPORATORS

K. R. MORISON

, Q. A. G. WORTH and N. P. ODEA

University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
F
alling lm evaporators are used extensively in the food industry for their ability to pro-
cess heat sensitive liquids. A coherent liquid lm is required to maintain heat transfer
efciency and minimize fouling. It is likely that most evaporator fouling occurs after
lm breakdown as the substance within the evaporator dries out. The minimum ow rate
required to maintain a lm is known as the minimum wetting rate which is dened as the
minimum mass ow rate per unit circumference. In this work, minimum wetting rates were
determined in a 1 m long, 48 mm internal diameter, vertical, stainless steel tube. Water and
aqueous solutions of glycerol, alcohol and calcium chloride were used. These substances
were chosen so as to give a wide range of properties such as viscosity (0.539 mPa s), density
(9501410 kg m
23
), surface tension (3590 mN m
21
) and contact angle (64988). In a
separate set of experiments, the minimum ow rate required to distribute liquid and comple-
tely wet the top of industrial evaporator tubes was measured using a range of sucrose
solutions.
The tube wetting results obtained tted a dimensionless power law relationship well. Sur-
face tension and contact angle had a strong inuence on the wetting rate but viscosity and
density were found to have very little effect. The minimum ow rates for distribution were
found to nearly always exceed the minimum wetting rates showing that more attention
needs to be given to distributor design.
Keywords: minimum wetting rate; falling lm evaporators; liquid distribution.
INTRODUCTION
Falling lm evaporators are used extensively in the food
industry for their ability to process heat sensitive materials
such as milk before spray drying and fruit and vegetable
juices. In these evaporators (Figure 1) the feed enters the
top of the vessel, it is distributed so that it ows evenly
down all the tubes as a lm, and the vapour and concentrate
leave from the bottom. A complete lm should be main-
tained inside the tubes at all times. This requires that the
liquid is rst distributed to all the tubes to provide sufcient
ow into each tube. Then the lm must be maintained
down the tubes. Film breakdown will decrease the ef-
ciency of the process and may cause excessive fouling
(Paramalingam et al., 2000). The minimum ow rate
required to establish or maintain a complete lm is
known as the minimum wetting rate (normally designated
G
min
) which is dened as the mass ow rate per unit cir-
cumference of the tube. Minimum wetting rates can be
measured for two distinct circumstances; in one case the
liquid ow rate is increased until an initially dry surface
is completely wetted while in the other the ow rate is
reduced to the point of lm breakdown (Watanabe et al.,
1975). This research was concerned with the rst case of
wetting a dry surface which requires a higher ow rate
than the second. In particular the ow of isothermal vertical
lms of aqueous solutions onto dry stainless steel with no
or low heat ux was of interest.
The paper of Hartley and Murgatroyd (1964) presents
some of the earliest work done in the eld of lm break-
down. They analysed the stability of an existing dry
patch (Figure 2) and determined the minimum wetting
rate by using a theoretical force balance [equation (1)].
G
min
1:69
mr
g

1=5
(s(1 cos u))
3=5
(1)
which can be expressed in the dimensionless form as
G
min
m
1:69
(s(1 cos u))r
1=3
m
4=3
g
1=3

3=5
(2)
where s is the surface tension, u is the contact angle, m is
the viscosity and r is the density.

Correspondence to: Dr K. R. Morison, University of Canterbury, Private

Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand.
E-mail: ken.morison@canterbury.ac.nz
302
09603085/06/$30.00+0.00
# 2006 Institution of Chemical Engineers
www.icheme.org/fbp Trans IChemE, Part C, December 2006
doi: 10.1205/fbp06031 Food and Bioproducts Processing, 84(C4): 302310
The work was extended by many others including Hoke
and Chen (1992) who included terms for heat transfer but
they were concerned primarily with the heat ux required
to disrupt an established lm. However their clear state-
ment of the force balance in the isothermal case is useful
here even though the numerical results are almost identical
to equation (1). The forces acting on the vertical section of
uid above the stagnation point arise from momentum of
the falling lm, weight of the liquid and surface tension
which hold the uid up. Expressed as force per unit
width, the three terms can be added to yield:
r
3
g
2
d
5
min
15m
2

1
4
rg
d
min
1 cos u

2
(2u sin 2u) s( cos u 1) 0 (3)
The lm thickness, d
min
, is related to the minimum wetting
rate under steady laminar conditions by
G
min

r
2
gd
3
min
3m
(4)
El-Genk and Saber (2001) provide a useful review of pre-
vious work and developed analytical expressions for mini-
mum wetting rates. They compared these with some of the
data of Munakata et al. (1975) with satisfactory results.
From the analytical results they obtained a simple empirical
expression for the minimum wetting rate for a dry patch
which can be written as equation (5).
G
min

rms
3
g

0:2

0:67(1 cos u)
0:623
0:26(1 cos u)
2:09

(5)
Here u is the advancing contact angle.
There is very little reported experimental work that
applies to the type of wetting of interest here (El-Genka
and Saber, 2001). Munakata et al. (1975) determined mini-
mum wetting rates for falling lms of aqueous glycerol
solutions owing down the outside of stainless steel and
glass tubes. They tested various distributors and for water
they obtained minimum wetting rates on stainless steel
from 0.065 to 0.124 kg m
21
s
21
, showing an experimental
variability of +40% about the mean. Hobler and Czajka
(1968) used aqueous glycerol solutions to wet stainless
steel surfaces at various angles and obtained a minimum
wetting rate of about 0.17 kg m
21
s
21
. This was very
much higher than the results of Munakata et al. (1975).
Paramalingam et al. (2000) reported the minimum wetting
rate for 208C water on a vertical stainless steel plate to be
0.222 kg m
21
s
21
. No details of the distribution system
used were given. Morison and Tandon (2006) obtained
minimum wetting rates ranging from 0.16 kg m
21
s
21
for
water at 208C to 0.12 kg m
21
s
21
for water at 708C and
0.22 kg m
21
s
21
for a 50% sucrose solution at 208C.
They used a ceramic distributor with 36 holes near the
base through which liquid owed before owing down
the inside of a 47.6 mm internal diameter stainless steel
tube. Their work showed that showed that viscosity
affected the wetting rate much less than predicted by
equation (1).
In an industrial evaporator a distribution system is
installed above the top tube sheet. A typical system consists
of a at bottom container with holes (58 mm in diameter)
that allows liquid to ow onto the at tube sheet between
the evaporator tubes (Figure 3). One common design has
six distributor holes around every tube (as shown in
Figure 3) while another has three. Some distributor plates
have vapour tubes that allow ashed vapour to escape
downwards into the tubes or upwards from the tube. The
effectiveness of these is beyond the scope of the present
study.
No published reports of experimental or theoretical work
have been found for wetting at the top edge of a vertical
tube. Similarly no work has been found for the wetting of
any edge such as a weir. One similar situation is that
known as the tea pot effect (Kistler and Scriven, 1994).
This effect causes liquids (e.g., liquid tea) to cling to an
edge and ow in the reverse direction. It is likely that
this effect has phenomena in common with ow over an
edge, but theoretical analysis of the ow will not be con-
sidered in this work.
Figure 1. A falling lm evaporator.
Figure 2. Film breakdown (after Hartley and Murgatroyd, 1964).
Trans IChemE, Part C, Food and Bioproducts Processing, 2006, 84(C4): 302310
MINIMUM WETTING AND DISTRIBUTION RATES IN FALLING FILM EVAPORATORS 303
The ow rate, Q, through a hole (diameter D and area A)
in the distributor plate can be described by Toricellis
equation
Q C
d
A

2gh
p
(6)
where h is the height of liquid from the base of the hole to
the surface of the liquid and C
d
is a discharge coefcient
that is likely to vary with Reynolds number, plate thickness
and the radius of the edge of upstream entrance of the hole.
For design purposes it is convenient to
p
(2gh) as at esti-
mate of velocity and thus an alternative Reynolds number
Re
h
is dened:
Re
h

D

2gh
p
r
m
(7)
Some of the physical properties required for this work had
been measured previously so were not measured here. The
viscosity and density of ethanol and water solutions are
given by Yusa et al. (1977). The density and viscosity of
water were obtained from Weast (1977). The surface ten-
sions of the sucrose solutions were obtained from Schmidt
et al. (2000).
There were two main aims for this work. The rst was to
obtain data for minimum wetting rates of a vertical tube,
using a selection of liquids with a sufciently wide range
of physical properties, so as to provide the basis for conr-
mation or otherwise of the theoretical relationships. The
second aim was to determine the minimum ow rate
(expressed as a wetting rate) that is required to achieve
full liquid distribution into the top entrance of the evapor-
ator tubes. The results from the two parts were then to be
compared to determine whether distribution or tube wetting
is a limiting factor in evaporator design.
METHODS AND MATERIALS
The solutions used for tube wetting experiments were
water at 608C, and aqueous solutions of 95% (by mass) gly-
cerol at 608C, 30% ethanol at 258C, and 30% and 40% food
grade calcium chloride at 258C. These were chosen to give
a range of viscosity and contact angle while being reprodu-
cible. For distribution experiments, water and aqueous sol-
utions of up to 66.5% sucrose between 258C and 308C were
used.
Three different apparatuses were used: a falling lm
evaporator tube for the determination of tube wetting
rates, a simple draining device for the determination of dis-
charge coefcients for the design of distribution plates, and
a model of the distribution system in an evaporator for the
examination of liquid distribution.
Physical Properties
The densities of solutions that could not be obtained
from literature were determined by the use of a density
bottle at 208C. Densities at other temperatures were calcu-
lated by assuming that the specic gravity of the solution
was constant. The viscosity of the 95% glycerol solution
was measured using a Haake concentric cylinder visco-
meter which had been calibrated using a standard oil. The
absolute accuracy was better than +5%.
The contact angle was measured using the apparatus
shown in Figure 4 which was housed in a humidied, temp-
erature controlled air-bath. Solution was fed via a hypoder-
mic needle into a hole in a 304 stainless steel plate. A
syringe pump (KDS100, KD Scientic, Hilliston, MA,
USA) was used to inject a solution at a ow rate of
3 mL h
1
so that a slowly advancing drop formed without
any size reduction from evaporation. The drop was backlit
by reecting light off white paper. As the drop formed (up
to a diameter of about 10 mm) on the plate images were
captured by a digital camera with a close-up lens. The
size of the drop was determined by comparing it with the
image of a steel ball of known dimensions that was sus-
pended above the drop. The shape of the drop was analysed
using axisymmetric drop shape analysis (Lahooti et al.,
1996). The equations were integrated using the Runge
KuttaFehlberg method and the parameters were solved
Figure 3. Plan and elevation views of a typical distribution system.
Figure 4. Apparatus for contact angle measurement.
Trans IChemE, Part C, Food and Bioproducts Processing, 2006, 84(C4): 302310
304 MORISON et al.
using Excel Solver. The contact angle was determined to
within +18.
Surface tension was measured either using a Fisher sur-
face tensiometer with a de Nouy ring or (for calcium chlo-
ride solution) with a Wilhelmy plate suspended from an
electronic balance with a resolution of 0.1 mg. The force
reading relative to that for distilled water was used to cal-
culate the surface tension. The methods were found to be
repeatable to + 0.5 mN m
21
.
Falling Film Apparatus
The falling lm apparatus (Figure 5) consisted of an
evaporator tube 1 m long with inner diameter 47.6 mm
inside an annular water jacket with an outer diameter of
72 mm. The evaporator tube and the other tubing in the
apparatus were constructed from 304 stainless steel. Sev-
eral different distributor designs were tested. The rst
design was based on an annular gap between the distribu-
tor and the inside wall of the evaporator tube and the
some distributors were made as overowing weirs of plas-
tic, glass and stainless steel. Next a ceramic annulus with
a number of holes near the base [described by Morison
and Tandon (2006)] was used. The chosen distributor
(Figure 6) was an unglazed ceramic annulus with the
same internal diameter as the evaporator tube. The sol-
ution owed from an external connection, up through a
perforated ring, and over the top of the distributor to
form a coherent lm on the ceramic before owing into
the tube. A run was deemed acceptable only if a complete
lm was owing from the ceramic distributor onto the top
edge of the stainless steel tube before complete tube
wetting was achieved.
The evaporator tube was cleaned before every run except
for sequential runs with water. The preheater water bath
was set to a temperature to achieve the desired inlet temp-
erature of 608C or 258C with an accuracy and stability of
+0.18C. Heating was carried out by pumping the solutions
using a gear pump (Series 120, Micropump Inc, Vancouver,
WA, USA) through the feed preheating water bath, rota-
meter, and the bypass line back to the feed tank. Water
was circulated through the water jacket at the same temp-
erature to ensure there was no heat transfer. The gear
pump speed was initially set to give a ow rate of about
0.7 L min
21
and the valves were changed to give ow
into the apparatus. The ow rate was then slowly increased,
using a variable speed drive, by as little as 0.020 L min
21
every 2 min, until the tube was observed to be completely
wet. The ow rate was then determined by bucket and stop-
watch by disconnecting the bypass line at a point that gave
no change in pumping head. The minimum ow rate
required to wet the tube was divided by the circumference
to determine the minimum wetting rate. All of the experi-
mental runs reported in this paper were conducted at atmos-
pheric pressure.
Discharge Coefcient Apparatus
To enable appropriate calculation of hole sizes using
equation (6), experiments were carried out to determine
the discharge coefcient for water and sucrose solutions
through countersunk holes with diameters from 4 mm to
8 mm in 5 mm thick acrylic sheet. A test cup was con-
structed with a piece of acrylic containing a hole at the
base. The test liquid was pumped using a gear pump
(Micropump GC, Vancouver, WA, USA) into the cup and
the ow rate and liquid heights (from the bottom of the
plate) were measured. The viscosities and densities of the
sucrose solutions were obtained from Weast (1977) and
temperature corrections were applied if required up
to 308C.
Figure 6. Liquid distributor used in the falling lm evaporator.
Figure 5. Falling lm evaporator for determination of minimum wetting
rates.
Trans IChemE, Part C, Food and Bioproducts Processing, 2006, 84(C4): 302310
MINIMUM WETTING AND DISTRIBUTION RATES IN FALLING FILM EVAPORATORS 305
Distribution Apparatus
A model of the top of a falling lm evaporator was con-
structed from 316 stainless steel (Figure 7). It comprised a
10 mm tube sheet with 19 tubes, each 50.8 mm outside
diameter and 500 mm long that were welded in a triangular
pitch of 60 mm (Figure 8). The top edge was ground to give
a radius of 12 mm. The tube arrangement was chosen to
provide a central tube that was unaffected by edge effects
with six tubes around the centre that were minimally
affected by edge effects. The tubes were suspended over
a collection tank. Various distributors were constructed
from acrylic sheet and holes were drilled on the same
pitch so that liquid would fall onto the tube sheet at a
point symmetrically between the tubes. A pre-distributor
was tted above the distributor to minimise ow disturb-
ances on the distributor. The feed tank contained a coil of
copper tubing through which tap water owed to help
maintain the temperature of the liquid.
Liquid was pumped from the feed tank, via a manual
control valve and rotameter, into the distribution system.
The liquid then owed down the tubes and through some
inverted plastic bottles and tubing to allow manual ow
measurement. The liquid then returned to the feed tank
for recirculation.
Four different distributors were constructed from 5 mm
acrylic sheet. Two (designated A) had three holes around
each evaporator tube and the other two (designated B)
had six holes per tube, as shown in Figure 8. One of each
pair one was designed for liquids with viscosity similar to
water (referred to as water) and the other was designed
with larger holes for liquids with a viscosity of about
50 mPa s (referred to as sugar).
The diameters of the holes in the distributor plates were
calculated to give equal ow to each evaporator tube under
typical conditions. It was assumed that the ow from each
distributor hole would ow to its nearest tubes. For holes
near the centre, the ow would be shared between three
tubes giving one-third of the ow to each. For the A
design distributor each central tube would be fed by three
such distributor holes so the tube ow rate should have
been the same as the distributor hole ow rate. Some of
the outer holes would be shared between two tubes while
others would feed only one tube. In Figure 8(a) the white
holes should have a ow rate equal to the tube ow rate,
while the cross-hatched and black holes should have ow
rates of
2
3
and
1
3
respectively of the tube ow rate. For the
B design distributors [Figure 8(b)] each central tube is
fed by six distributor holes so the tube ow rate is twice
the distributor hole ow rate. The ow rates through the
white, cross-hatched and black holes should be
1
2
,
1
3
and
1
6
respectively of the tube ow rate. The hole diameters are
proportional to the square root of these ratios and are
given in Table 1. All the holes were countersunk to a
depth of about 1 mm on the top side. The side wall of the
distributor was 90 mm high, making this the maximum
possible liquid height in the distributor.
The pre-distribution system was designed after a series
of trials with the aim of ensuring uniform distribution
with a minimum of momentum effects. Firstly (Figure 7)
the single stream of liquid fell from the end of a 25 mm
Figure 7. Apparatus for determination of minimum distribution rates.
Figure 8. Distributor designs A and B. White holes feed three tubes, cross-hatched holes feed two tubes and black holes feed one. The positions of the tubes
are shown by the dashed circles.
Trans IChemE, Part C, Food and Bioproducts Processing, 2006, 84(C4): 302310
306 MORISON et al.
tube into a small 65 mm diameter container with holes on
the vertical wall about 30 mm up from the bottom; this
removed the downward momentum of the liquid. The
liquid then owed into a series of two large plastic bowls,
the rst with large holes in the base and the second with
smaller holes before landing onto the distributor plate. If
the uid had a viscosity less than 7 mPa s it also passed
through an acrylic sheet with 4 mm holes drilled into it
and with plastic mesh xed onto either side to further
reduce the momentum of the uid. With this system the
uid was distributed horizontally to all parts of the distribu-
tor plate with a minimum amount of momentum.
Before each run the tube sheet was cleaned with water
and dried using a hair drier. Often water was sufcient
for cleaning but if cleanliness was in doubt it was cleaned
with 2% sodium hydroxide solution followed, after a rinse,
by 2% nitric acid and a further water rinse.
For each run the ow rate was slowly increased by
adjusting the manual value until the top part of all of the
seven internal tubes were completely wetted by a coherent
lm. At this point the distributor liquid height, liquid temp-
erature and ow rates from the tubes were measured. The
minimum distribution rate was calculated as the average
of the mass ow rates down the seven inner tubes divided
by the tube circumference. This denition is analogous to
the minimum wetting rate for wetting within the tube.
RESULTS AND ANALYSES
Physical Properties
Table 2 lists the physical properties measured or
obtained from literature (shown in italics).
Tube Wetting
The different distributor designs were tested before select-
ing the design described above. The rst design based on an
annular gap between the evaporator tube and the distributor
was not effective as very small variations in the gap caused
non-uniform distribution (G
min
was 0.28 kg m
21
s
21
for
water at 208C). Surface tension was seen to hold back
liquid in distributors using a weir overow (G
min
was
0.20 kg m
21
s
21
). The ceramic distributor reported by
Morison and Tandon (2006) described above proved unsatis-
factory for viscous uids. The overowing ceramic distribu-
tor became fully wetted on the inside ceramic surface and
would fully wet the top edge of the stainless tube at ow
rates lower than that required to wet the entire tube. The wet-
ting rate obtained (0.104 kg m
21
s
21
for water) was lower
than that obtained using the other distributor designs.
It took approximately 20 min to determine the minimum
wetting rate for a particular condition. Initially the ow rate
was set well below the expected minimum wetting rate. At
this low ow one single fat rivulet was often seen owing
down the tube. When the ow rate was increased three or
four rivulets might form, then, as the ow rate was
increased, the gaps between all but one of these would
become wetted until nally there would be one dry patch,
about 510 mm below the top edge, similar to that
shown in Figure 2. The nal stage of complete wetting
often occurred over a period of about 2 min with no further
increase in ow rate. Once a complete lm was achieved in
the top section of the tube, the lm never broke further
down the tube. The minimum wetting rates obtained for
the various uids are reported in Table 2.
The data was analysed using the two dimensionless
groups used in equation (2) and it was found that a
power relationship [equation (8) and Figure 9] best tted
the data (R
2
0.995).
G
min
m
0:232
(1 cos u)sr
1=3
m
4=3
g
1=3

0:764
(8)
The effect of each parameter is more clearly shown by
equation (9)
G
min
0:13((1 cos u)s)
0:764
r
0:255
m
0:018
(9)
Figure 9 shows that equations (2) and (5) are not a good pre-
dictor of the experimental results. In an attempt to resolve
this discrepancy, the lm thickness required to satisfy the
force balance given by equation (3) was calculated and com-
pared with the steady laminar lm thickness determined,
using equation (4), from the experimental wetting rates.
The correlation is shown in Figure 10 with a best t line
forced to pass through the origin. The lm thickness required
by the force balance was always larger than for the calcu-
lated laminar lm thickness. This indicated that the lm
thickness at the stagnation point (Figure 2) is greater than
the thickness for the same ow rate when complete wetting
Table 2. Experimental lm wetting results.
Temperature Concentration Density Viscosity Surface tension Contact Minimum wetting rate
Fluid 8C w/w kg m
23
mPa s mN m
21
angle 8 No. of runs kg m
21
s
21
Water 60 983.2 0.463 66.2 88 7 0.104 +0.005
Water 25 997.1 0.891 72.0 88 .10 0.104 +0.005
Glycerol/water 60 95% 1224 39 63.7 80 6 0.084 +0.005
Ethanol/water 25 30% 951.6 2.23 35.5 64.5 6 0.038 +0.004
CaCl
2
/water 25 30% 1300 3.36 87.3 97.6 1 0.156 +0.005
CaCl
2
/water 25 40% 1412 7.53 90.2 96.7 2 0.193 +0.005
Values in italics were obtained from literature.
Table 1. Hole sizes (mm) in the distributors.
Hole type Relative ow A-water A-sugar B-water B-sugar
White 1 6.0 8.0 4.5 6.4
Grey 2/3 4.9 6.5 3.7 5.2
Black 1/3 3.5 4.6 2.6 3.7
Trans IChemE, Part C, Food and Bioproducts Processing, 2006, 84(C4): 302310
MINIMUM WETTING AND DISTRIBUTION RATES IN FALLING FILM EVAPORATORS 307
is achieved. This seems reasonable as full wetting reduces
the surface tension term in the force balance to zero.
Discharge Coefcients
The discharge coefcient was measured for ow of
liquids through a countersunk hole and related to the Rey-
nolds number or the alternative estimate Re
h
dened by
equation (7). The results are shown in Figure 11.
The relationship between C
d
and Re
h
was satisfactorily
described by the empirical equation
C
d
1 2:44Re
0:36
h
(10)
or based on Re
C
d
1 1:19Re
0:245
for Re , 200 (11a)
C
d
1 1:96Re
0:34
for Re . 200 (11b)
Distribution
Distribution tests were carried out with aqueous sucrose
solutions from 0 to 66.5% sucrose by mass. It was observed
(as shown in Figure 12) that in most cases the liquid formed
a hydraulic jump on the tube sheet. Within the jump radius
the liquid velocity was relatively high and the liquid owed
immediately into the tube wetting the part of the circumfer-
ence within the jump. Beyond the jump radius, the liquid
rose to a height of about 3 mm and at low ow rates surface
tension effects held it on the tube sheet without ow into
some parts of the tube.
The tubes in the outer ring did not become fully wetted
before the others and it seemed that some of the outer dis-
tributor holes were a little too small. However there was no
evidence of any edge effects inuencing the wetting of the
seven inner tubes.
When all seven inner tubes in the tube sheet were fully
wet, the range in ow rates through the seven tubes was
typically 1020% of the average of the seven. The A
design (with three distributor holes per tube) tended to
have a greater range (up to 25%) than the B design (with
six holes per tube) which had a range of up to 17%. It
was found that the A design gave much less consistent
minimum distribution rates than the B design. Generally
Figure 9. Experimental minimum wetting rates compared with equation
(2) and predictions from equation (5).
Figure 10. Comparison of lm thicknesses calculated from the force
balance and from experimental data.
Figure 11. Discharge coefcients for ow through a countersunk hole in a
5 mm sheet.
Figure 12. Flow from the A-sugar distributor with 57% sucrose solution
showing hydraulic jumps and incomplete distribution into the tubes.
Trans IChemE, Part C, Food and Bioproducts Processing, 2006, 84(C4): 302310
308 MORISON et al.
the A design required a higher ow rate to achieve wetting
and at concentrations above 60% failed to achieve wetting
at distribution rates of about 0.3 kg m
21
s
21
.
Two tests were carried out with a gap between the
bottom of the distributor and the tube sheet of 69 mm
instead of 40 mm as used in all other trials. For the A
and B designs the minimum distribution rates were 10%
and 9% higher than for the 40 mm gap (shown as and
in Figure 13). This difference is small and might not be
signicant.
During initial tests it was found that pre-distribution was
critically important. In one nal test only the rst small
container (Figure 7) was used for pre-distribution (above
the distributor). The resulting distribution was visibly
inferior and the distribution rate for wetting was about
10% higher (shown as an open circle in Figure 13). The
range of ow rates within the seven inner tubes was
much greater being 41% of the average.
Also shown in Figure 13 is a curve of the predicted mini-
mum wetting rates that were calculated using the equation
(8). Relevant properties of aqueous sucrose and an esti-
mated contact angle of 888 were used. In nearly all cases
the minimum distribution rate was greater than the tube
wetting rate.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
To obtain accurate minimum wetting rates in the falling
lm tube it was found that the liquid distributor needed to
have superior wetting characteristics, and hence a lower
minimum wetting rate, than the falling lm tube. It was
suspected that the main reason for the difference from pre-
viously reported results is the inadequacy of the distributors
used in the earlier work.
The minimum wetting rates obtained in this work were
lower than the studies mentioned above, except for the
study of Munakata et al. (1975). However the repeatability
of our results is better than the 1975 study.
Equation (9) shows that viscosity had very little inu-
ence on wetting rate. The exponent (20.018) was signi-
cantly lower than 0.2 used in equations (1) and (5) or
obtained from equations (3) and (4). Similarly the expo-
nent of density is small and the effect of density on the
minimum wetting rate was less than 11% over the full
range of densities measured. The major inuences on
the minimum wetting rate were surface tension and con-
tact angle. Zisman (1964) showed that for a given surface
there is normally a close (often linear) relationship
between surface tension and the cosine of the contact
angle. Thus there is possibly only one independent vari-
able (surface tension or contact angle) that has a major
inuence on minimum wetting rate.
The empirical equation for wetting rate obtained here
indicates that the theory needs to be reconsidered. It
seems very likely that the weakness of the approach used
by others is the assumption that the lm thickness at the
stagnation point is the same as the steady laminar ow
lm thickness after complete wetting has been achieved.
It is not obvious how one might develop of theoretical
relationship between these two thicknesses, however it
should be possible to measure the thickness of the lm at
the stagnation point and at the same point when the same
ow rate of liquid fully wets the tube.
In the second part of the research, an equation was
obtained relating the discharge coefcient to Reynolds
number for ow through a countersunk hole in a thick
plate. While the results were satisfactory for the selection
of hole sizes in distributor plates, the scatter in the results
indicated that a single equation was not sufcient to
describe the ow for a range of holes sizes and uid visc-
osities. A more complex analysis was not required for the
design of the distributors used in this work.
The distribution system for the distribution experiments
was designed such that it would model industrial systems
as closely as possible while at the same time allowing con-
sistent conditions. It became very clear during initial trials
that any downwards momentum in uid coming onto the
distributor plate resulted in variability in the ow rates
through the distributor holes, even when there was more
than 50 mm height of liquid in the distributor. As more
pre-distribution devices were added, more consistent and
lower distribution rates were obtained. The pre-distribution
system used seemed to be effective in minimising momen-
tum effects as seen by the reasonably consistent results that
were obtained for the B-style distributor.
Visual inspection of the ow pattern on the tube sheet
(Figure 12) indicated that the hydraulic jump radius inu-
enced the minimum distribution rate. Full distribution
into the tubes was achieved within the jump radius,
where the uid velocity was higher, but at distances
beyond the jump radius distribution was less effective.
Attempts were made to relate the minimum distribution
rates to the hydraulic jump radius but no clear quantitative
relationships were found.
The six-hole B design generally gave lower minimum
distribution rates than the three-hole A design. This is
almost certainly because a greater proportion of the top
edge of the tubes is exposed to a region within the hydrau-
lic jump and hence to a higher velocity.
The experimental results showed that the minimum dis-
tribution rate was nearly always greater than the minimum
tube wetting rate. Thus when designing evaporators, atten-
tion must be given to the distribution system and distri-
bution rates, and not only to the tube wetting rates.
Figure 13. Minimum distribution rates for distributor designs A and B,
with curve showing predicted minimum tube wetting rates.
Trans IChemE, Part C, Food and Bioproducts Processing, 2006, 84(C4): 302310
MINIMUM WETTING AND DISTRIBUTION RATES IN FALLING FILM EVAPORATORS 309
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are grateful to Marcus Le Quesne for carrying out many of
the distribution experiments.
The manuscript was received 4 May 2006 and accepted for publication
after revision 17 August 2006.
Trans IChemE, Part C, Food and Bioproducts Processing, 2006, 84(C4): 302310
310 MORISON et al.