ON THE SIZE OF DROPS IN PULSED AND VIBRATING

PLATE EXTRACTION COLUMNS

L. BOYADZHIEV* and M. SPASSOV

Central Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, BulgarianAcademy of Sciences, Sofia 1040, Bulgaria

(Receioed 6 April 1981; clccepled 6 July 1981)

Abstract-An equation, based on the Kolmogorov-Obukhovtheory of the local structure of turbulent pulsations is
proposed for calculation of the mean drop diameter in pulsed and vibrating plate extraction columns. By means of
this eauation the mean droo diameter could be evaluated for intensive flow pulsation (or plate vibration) within
20% accuracy.

The mean size of drops formed in turbulized liquid-
liquid dispersions is one of the basic characteristics
needed for calculation and design of an extraction
eqitipment. The knowledge of the dispersion parameter
makes it possible to evaluate other process charac-
teristics such as dispersed phase hold-up, interfacial area
and mass transfer coefficients.
The average volume-surface diameter (&) could be
estimated by applying the Kolmogoroff-Obukhov theory
of local structure of turbulent pulsations[l, 21. The use
of this theory, however assumes a priori that certain
conditions are satisfied. When the assumed conditions
are not fulfilled, the calculated drop diameters are far
from the correct value and do not agree with the
experimental results. This problem was extensively dis-
cussed earlier in connection with the drop break-up in
the turbulent two-phase flow [3].
The paper deals with the practical problem of cal-
culation of the mean drop diameter in the case of pulsed
or vibrating plate extraction columns and a new equation
for this purpose is proposed.
THEORETICAL
According to the theory of the local structure of
turbulent pulsations, adapted to the liquid-liquid dis-
persion formation, the drop break-up could be governed
by several mechanisms, depending on the type of forces
(capillary, viscous etc.) which control this process&71.
In the typical liquid-liquid systems dispergation is con-
trolled for sufficiently high turbulence intensity, by a
mechanism based on the capillar and the dynamic forces
acting on a single drop[3, 81. Following this mechanism
the maximum stable drop diameter is given by the rela-
tionship:
d,,, = k,(cr/p,)3’5 . (oh’)“‘.
According to the basic concept of the abovementioned
theory the characteristics u and I for a vibrating or
pulsed plate should be considered as a maximal flow
velocity and an equivalent radius of the plate hole res-
pectively. An accurate prediction of the kl is difficult
since the development of eqn (1) is associated with a
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
number of simplifying assumptions [4,9]. Nevertheless, an
elementar balancing of the capilar and dynamic forces
indicates that this value is of the order of magnitudeone.
Equation (1) could be presented in another form[lo]:
d,,, = k&_?/~~~p”~. (2)
On introducing the equivalents of the maximal flow
velocity c1= 2af/q and the characteristic length I = dJ2,
the energy dissipated, related to the plate area will be:
E = k(pc/d,t~~3(2~f)~. (3)
After combining eqns (2) and (3) one obtains:
d,,, = k;(~/lp,)3’5.94’5.d~‘5/(2uf)6’5. (4)
From a practical point view more important than the
maximum diameter d,,, is the mean volume-surface
(Sauter) diameter &. Unfortunately, there is very little
information about the relation between d,,, and (s,,. Ac-
cording to certain experimental studies of drop formation
in agitated vessels the ratio &/d,,, varies between 0.38
and 0.67 [8, 11, 121.Therefore the value of k2 in
& = k,(u/pC)“5~ Ip4’5,d:‘5/(2uf)6’5 (5)
will be by a factor 1.5-2.5 smaller than kl in eqn (1).
EXPERIMENTN.
The experiments were carried out in a laboratory glass
pulsed column, 0.05 m in dia. and 1.0 m of operational
height: provided with 21 perforated plates spaced at
0.05 m. The plates were made of stainless steel and had
circular perforations (0.002 m dia. of the holes), arranged
in an equilateral-triangular position. The free area of the
(0 plate was 19.8% (6 =0.198). The system used was dis-
tilled water-equivolumic mixture of kerosene and carbon
tetrachloride (KCT) (density 1I80 kg/m3). The interfacial
tension measured by the method of the pendant drop [13]
was 0.034 N/m at 20°C.
The mean drop diameter (&) was obtained using the
well known photographic method. Special provisions
were taken to provide correct and precise measurement
of this characteristic in the multidrop populations as
337
338 L. BOYADZHIEVand M. SPASSOV

multilayer depth focusing, thermostating, rectangular
antidistortion perplex boxing, etc. Photographs were
taken in the region of the 17th plate (counting from the
dispersed phase entry), since the preliminary tests had
shown a constant drop size in the last quarter of the
column lenght. All drops were measured within 2~
low5m accuracy from representative areas of each pho-
tograph, each one including V&O-2500drops. The mean
diameter was calculated from the expression
(6) where e,,, is defined as the lowest limit of the maximum
The values of d;* for various pulsation amplitudes and
frequencies are given in Table 1.
The phase flowrates were kept constant-Q, =
5.7 x 10m6m3/s and Q0= 2.95 x 10m6m’/s, since the prel-
iminary tests confirmed the assumption that phase
flowrates do not influence the mean drop diameter if the
condition (Q,,. + Qo)/S < 2af is met.
The results obtained for &, as well as those reported
by other authors [ 14191, including experiments made in a
Karr type extractor[ll] and multistage vibrating disk
column[20] are shown in Fig. 1. Table 2 reports the
essential information about the columns and systems
used.
Selecting from all data presented in Fig. 1 only those,
obtained for the condition:
e,,,= pC(2&‘/2gZ> 0.48 [kg/s’] (7)
local kinetic energy dissipated into the dispersion passing
through the plate per unite plate area, the validity of the
relationship (5) becomes obvious (see Fig. 2). Data
obtained at high turbulent regimes i.e., e,,, > 0,48, follow
eqn (5), presented in its final form as:

Table 1.

3 2a I=Zaf em a,,
HZ m m/s k/s3 m

3 U,UIO 0,030 0,54 O,GOll~

O.Ul4 0,042 0*95 0.00090
o,otg 0,054 2,Ol 0,000d7
0,024 0,072 4,76 O,OOO48

2-5 0,020 0,050 1.59 O,cOO72

0,024 0,060 ZP75 0,00064
0,028 0,070 4,37 0,00051

2 0,026 0,052 I,79 0.0007f

0.030 0,060 2.75 0.00066
0,035 0,070 4937 0,00053

KC
8-
6-
L-

315 (p4/5 &I’

0
. -
Rg. 2. Correlahon for d32vs E t2af),,,q forfully developed turbulence(e,,, > 0.48).Thenumbers correspond to
PC
those in Table 2.
 On the size of drops in pulsed and vibrating plate extraction columns 339

ll”lP *.

,y::tem I$0
G 10’ ‘p dl,lo3 em ,‘,a,66
c- and a- P Ref .NU
kg/m3 s/m - m transfer
p iase kg/s3

1 . Water-carbon
tetmchloride 9% 45,o 0,1t2 2,o 0,015-l ,2 14

2.water-carmn 1000 45.0 0,468 2~0 j,O6-24~4 J2, c-d 15

tetracL&x-ide

3. Water-carbon
tetmchlor-ide lUO0 45.0 0,186 2,0 3,06-24,4 J2, d --SC 15

4.Water-carbon
tetracllloride 1000 4510 0,078 2,0 0,13-16,3 c-nitropxnol, 16
c-d

5 .Water-kerosene 1000 5990 0,WZ 2,O 0.04-0772 17

6 .Kerosene-water 805 2b.2 0.55 12,7 0.07~2,69 18

7 .#et:~l-i-outil 816 b,7 0955 12,“7 O,Ol-0,27 18

k&on -vmter

8 aWater-i+IBK 1000 877 OS19 3,o o,uz-9.90 19

9. water-MIBK 1000 10,o 0.052 2,o 18,- 2106, 20

IO.Water-toli\ene 1000 3517 0.052 2.0 15,- 1712. 20

11,Water-n-nexane 1000 51r5 0,052 2.0 15,- 2112. 20

2 .Wa+-KCT 1000 34,O 011 w 2,o o,34-4.76 P’d”,“t’,“t

’jP
315
p4’
Fig. 2. Correlation
- 0
ford32vs c
h
.
WY’
t for fully developed turbulence

those in Table 2.
(em> 0.48). The numbers correspond to

This equation predicts the mean drop diameter in a
pulsed or vibrating plate columns within 20% accuracy
for the systems with different physical properties (805i
pc < 1000;816 c pd < 1595;0.008==I u < 0.0515)and plates
with different design characteristic4 ,(O.LKE<d,, C
0.0127;0,052< cp< 0.55).
Considering the available information about the ratio
&,/d, the value of k2(k2= 0.57) confirms the fact that
the theoretical coefficient K, in eq. (1) is approximately
1.
The application of eqn (8) for practical purposes,
however, should be made with care even when restric-
tion (7) is fulfilled. The basic eqn (1) assumes the, ideal
case, and neglects many inevitable effects as the
presence of surface active agents or the interphase mass
fluxes, modifying the interfacial tension (the latter could
be seen directly by comparing the data for systems No.
2 and 3), drop coalescence due to the fact that the
hold-up has always a finite, nonzero value, time depend-
ing equilibrium establishment etc.
340 L. BOYADZHIEV
and M. SPASSOV
In conclusion, it should be emphasized that the
concept of lower limit of the dissipated kinetic energy e,,,
and the appropriate representation of the characteristics,
participating in the expression namely u and I provides
further possibilities to develop analogous correlations for
&, applicable to liquid-liquid dispersions produced in
other ways.
Acknowledgement-The authors are indebted to Dr. Pentchev
for the valuablediscussion of these results.
NOTATION
pulse or vibration amplitude, m
da_m maximum stable drop diameter, m
d 3t mean volume-surface (Sauter) dron diameter. m
d,t plate perforations diameter, m
4 column diameter, m
maximal local kinetic energy, dissipated in the
em
liquid per unit plate area em =p,(2uf)‘j2~‘,
kglsec’
pulse or vibration frequency, set‘ ’
k’ coefficients in eqns (I), (2), (3), (4) and (5)
I characteristic length, m
m maximal mass flowrate through the plate, m =
p,Zai~(rrlXl4) kglsec
column cross section, S = ssDy4, m2
maximal flow velocity, u = Zaflo m
phase density, kg/m3
interfacial tension, N/m
plate free area
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