Chemical Engineering Science 61 (2006) 2930 – 2938

www.elsevier.com/locate/ces

Measurement and CFD simulation of single-phase flow in solvent

extraction pulsed column
J.M. Bujalski, W. Yang, J. Nikolov, C.B. Solnordal, M.P. Schwarz∗
CSIRO MINERALS, Box 312, Clayton South, Victoria 3169, Australia

Received 5 July 2005; received in revised form 5 October 2005; accepted 10 October 2005
Available online 15 December 2005

Abstract
A CFD (computational fluid dynamics) model of a solvent extraction pulsed column has been developed and run with a single water phase.
The results are compared with experimental measurements taken on a pilot scale column using PIV (particle image velocimetry).
The pulsed column investigated had disk–doughnut internals and was operated under pulsing intensities ranging from 10 to 32.5 mm/s. PIV
measurements of velocity were used to validate the CFD model and to characterise the pulsing flow of a single phase through the column. The
CFD modelling was performed for the same geometry and operating conditions using a 2D computational grid and a low Reynolds Number
k–
turbulence model. An improved velocity prediction was achieved by adding a gap between the doughnut internal and the pulsed column
wall. The combined measurements and predictions give insight into the effect of the geometry internals on the flow hydrodynamics in the
pulsed column.
䉷 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Fluid mechanics; Simulation; Pulsed column; CFD; PIV

1. Introduction presented by Vancas and Buchalter (2003). Nitsch and Schuster

Solvent extraction is a technique for separating components
in solution by distribution between two immiscible liquid
phases. Over the years different types of solvent extraction
contactors have been developed for use in the minerals pro-
cessing industry. The most common type is the mixer settler
arrangement but more recently pulsed columns have been
employed.
In recent years they have started gaining acceptance by the
minerals industry as an alternative to the mixer/settler config-
uration used in solvent extraction. The pulsed column’s ma-
jor advantage over conventional solvent extraction systems is
a small footprint for multistage extraction systems. Also the
possibility of reduction in organic losses and organic inven-
tory, and lower sensitivity to solids loading and crud make the
process attractive (Fox et al., 1998). A more detailed analysis
of the relative merits of pulsed columns and mixer/settlers is
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 3 9545 8568; fax: +61 3 9562 8919.
E-mail address: Phil.Schwarz@csiro.au (M.P. Schwarz).
0009-2509/$ - see front matter 䉷 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ces.2005.10.057
(1983) stated that due to the complex nature of pulsed columns,
they had to be designed empirically and that more fundamental
research into the local flow structures, hydrodynamics and mass
transfer was therefore needed.
Hydrodynamics in different pulsed extraction columns
have been investigated using indirect experimental methods
(Dimitrova Al Khani et al., 1988; Camurdan et al., 1989;
Lorenz et al., 1990). The reported experimental work has fo-
cused on the mass transfer aspect of the operation (droplet
size distribution and hold-up). By analysing the extraction
efficiency data, conclusions have been drawn about the hydro-
dynamics in the pulsed columns.
Direct investigation of pulsed column hydrodynamics has
been reported by Angelov et al. (1990). The authors measured
the axial velocity component at different Reynolds numbers
and positions in a pulsed column using LDA (laser doppler
anemometry) in a non-pulsating flow. The measured inlet and
outlet velocity profiles were used by the authors as boundary
conditions for CFD simulations whilst the results in the centre
of the column were used to validate their simulations. The work
 J.M. Bujalski et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 61 (2006) 2930 – 2938 2931

of Ni et al. (2002) measured the velocity field in an oscillatory

baffled reactor by PIV but, to the knowledge of the authors, no
previous work on PIV measurements in disk doughnut pulsed
columns has been reported.
Angelov et al. (1998) investigated the energy dissipation
maps between the disk doughnut cells and concluded that there
were moving energy dissipation zones above and below the
plates in addition to the high shear rate zones near the doughnut
edges leading to additional droplet break-up zones. Angelov
and Gourdon (2002) linked the turbulent macroscale to the
height between the disk doughnut internals and found that the
turbulence energy in the pulsed column is linked to the size of
the generated vortices. This implies a strong dependence of the
pulsed column performance on internals.
CFD simulation of the disk doughnut geometry under pulsed
flow has been reported by Aoun Nabli et al. (1998). In this
work authors modelled the single phase hydrodynamics and
axial dispersion coefficient of an injected tracer but did not
validate their velocity field results. In later work Aoun Nabli
et al. (1998) used CFD to investigate the level of turbulence of
different disk doughnut geometries and Reynolds numbers. The
authors concluded that “more precise experimental knowledge
of the hydrodynamics within these columns is necessary to
improve the simulations” and suggested PIV as the best method
to achieve this.
In most studies, the authors have assumed that the internals fit
the column walls. In test scale columns there is a possibility of a
gap between the doughnut internal and the column wall. In the
literature there is no mention of any special treatment of such
gaps but discrepancies between the predicted and measured
axial dispersion have been observed (Aoun Nabli et al., 1997)
which could be explained by a gap. The effect of this geometry
imperfection on the hydrodynamics should be investigated.
In the literature the pulsed column hydrodynamics in single
phase and non-oscillating flow conditions have been experi- Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of PIV set-up for the pulsed column.
mentally investigated with the LDA measurement technique,
but there have been no reported results of the velocity profile
when a column is under pulsation operation or with the mea-
surement of the velocity field using the PIV technique. The were held by three metal rods of 50 mm height. At the top of
work presented in this paper fills in some of the gaps in the the pulsed column was a settler, see Fig. 1. The pulsation am-
knowledge of pulsed column hydrodynamics by using exper- plitude and frequency was controlled by a variable speed motor
imental and modelling tools to investigate pulsation flow in a and in the upward through-flow experiments additional fluid
single phase pulsed column. This work is the first stage of a was added at the bottom of the column whilst for the down-
research program on pulsed column hydrodynamics; the ward through flow experiment the additional fluid was added
second stage investigates two-phase flow and will be reported at the top of the column.
separately.
2.2. PIV (particle image velocimetry)
2. Methods
The single-phase fluid flow field within a pulsed col-
2.1. Experimental pulsed column umn was measured using 2D particle image velocimetry
(PIV). The ILA 2D PIV system consists of a 1.3 Megapixel
A one meter section of a 0.1 m internal diameter pulsed col- (1280 × 1024 pixels) 12-bit digital CCD camera which was
umn with disk doughnut metal internals was used as a basis for synchronised with a New Wave 120 mJ double-cavity Nd:YAG
the set of experiments. The spacing between disk and dough- laser. The laser beam was expanded by a cylindrical lens to
nut was set to half the internal diameter of the column and the form a 2 mm thick plane vertical light sheet that was directed
free flow area of the two types of internals was 23%. The in- horizontally through the centre of the pulsed column. As shown
ternal disks were held by a central shaft whilst the doughnuts in Fig. 1, a square Perspex box filled with water was placed
2932 J.M. Bujalski et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 61 (2006) 2930 – 2938

Table 1
Operating conditions of single-phase pulsed column for PIV measurements

Trial number Throughflow condition Pulsing amplitude Pulsing frequency Pulsation intensity Flux
(mm) (Hz) (mm/s) (m3 /m2 /hr)

1 No-flow 10 2 20 —

2 20 0.5 10
3 0.75 15
4 1 20

5 26 0.25 6.5
6 0.5 13
7 0.75 19.5
8 1 26
9 1.25 32.5

10 30 0.67 20
11 20 1 20 —
12 Down-flow (2 L/min) 20 1 20 15.3
13 Up-flow (2 L/min) 20 1 20 15.3

outside the cylindrical glass column to minimise the effect
of optical distortion at the curved surface. The positions of
tracer particles illuminated by the light sheet were recorded at
a frame rate that was a multiple of the pulsation frequency of
the liquid. An electrical encoder was installed on the crank of
the pulsator to allow selection of the single crank angle trigger
for the PIV synchronisation system. This ensured that images
could be taken repetitively in a sequence to a known pulsator
crank angle.
The field of view of the CCD camera was 80 × 64 mm2
using 1280 × 1028 pixels of CCD array. The smallest resolv-
able length scale of the PIV set-up, which is the real length
of each pixel, equals 62.5
m. The interrogation windows
were 64 × 64 pixels (4 × 4 mm2 ), with a 50% overlapping
between consecutive interrogation cells providing a velocity
vector spacing of 32 pixels (2 mm). Each instantaneous 2D
velocity measurement contained a total of 1209 vectors. The
seeding particles used were TSI silver-coated hollow glass
beads with mean diameter of 14
m and relative density of
1.65. The relaxation time of the particles was 18
s, which is
negligible compared to the separation time of 1–3 ms between
pairs of images used for computation of particle displace-
ments. The uncertainty of pixel displacement in the measure-
ment was about 0.2 pixel within the interrogation window of
64 × 64 pixels. Therefore the error of PIV measurements is
about 0.31%.
Measurements were taken over a period of approximately
100 cycles, and the flow fields averaged for each of 8 phases
within a cycle. In this way the effects of turbulence, which mean
that the detailed flow at each cycle is different, were averaged
out. For the preliminary single-phase flow field investigation,
the PIV measurements were carried out under the experimental
operating conditions in Table 1. These conditions correspond
to the range of pulsation intensity for which the column can
be operated in the mixer-settler or emulsion mode according to
the experimentally determined regime map and flooding curve
(Logsdail and Slater, 1991). Most of the measurements have
been made in the absence of through-flow, with one up-flow
and one down-flow case also studied (see Trial 12 and 13 in
Table 1).
The LDV (laser doppler velocimetry) measurements were
used as a crosscheck of the PIV results and the CFD sim-
ulations for Trial 4. LDV has been reported extensively in
literature for other systems (Fei et al., 2000) and is an ex-
tremely robust technique requiring no calibration. It is most
suitable as a method for accurately determining turbulence
characteristics (such as Reynolds stresses) of steady flows
but is used here to cross-check against the PIV. LDV is
slow compared to PIV for velocity measurement which is
why the PIV was the preferred method for investigating the
velocity field.
2.3. Computational method
The experimental pulsed column geometry has been mod-
elled using an axi-symmetric 2D geometry. This should be an
excellent approximation particularly away from the upper and
lower ends of the column. The axi-symmetric modelling as-
sumption of the flow field is valid since the large number of axi-
symmetric internal plates present in the column means that any
variations in velocity with angular position around the column
present at the top and bottom of the column will be damped out
for sections away from the top and bottom. Furthermore, the
tangential component of flow is negligible when compared to
the radial and axial components (Aoun Nabli et al., 1998). The
model computational domain extends over three disk–doughnut
sections in which the single-phase flow is considered to be typ-
ical of the flow over most of the column height. Although there
will be entrance regions at the top and bottom of the column, it is
expected that the flow will be the same in most of the sections of
the column.
The computational domain was terminated at top and bot-
tom by a 1 mm thick section of a disk, and the associated flow
 J.M. Bujalski et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 61 (2006) 2930 – 2938
Fig. 2. Axi-symmetric computational geometry used in the CFD simulations.
passage between the disk and the wall, at which inlet/outlet flow
boundary conditions must be defined. The height of the com-
putational domain was 156 mm whilst its radius was 50 mm.
To model the pulsed column an axi-symmetric uniform grid of
1 mm cell edge length was used with 7800 computational cells
as shown in Fig. 2.
To simulate the disks and doughnut internal plates, 2 mm
thick walls were inserted in the geometry at correct heights.
In the simulation only half the 6 mm diameter shaft holding
the disks was modelled, as it was positioned on the axis of
symmetry, running from the bottom to the top of the simulated
geometry. The properties of the single phase were those of water
with a density of 1000 kg/m3 and viscosity 0.001 kg/ms. The
Reynolds number for the pulsating flow, ReP , can be defined
as (Ni et al., 2003):
D(f A)
ReP = . (1)

For the case with frequency, f, equal to 1 Hz and peak-to-peak
amplitude, A, equal to 20 mm, ReP = 2000.
The general purpose CFD code, CFX 4, was used as the
basis for the model development. The conservation of mass
and momentum were determined using the Reynolds averaged
2933
Navier–Stokes Eqs. (2) and (3) (AEA Technology, 2002).
j
+ ∇ · (U) = 0, (2)
jt
j
U + ∇ · (U ⊗ U) − ∇ · (eff ∇U)
jt
= −∇p  + ∇ · (eff (∇U)T ) + B, (3)
In Eq. (3), eff is the effective viscosity and calculated in Eq.
(4):
eff =  + T . (4)
The Reynolds number in the simulations is around 2000 and
so the standard k–
turbulence model is not appropriate. The
low Reynolds number k–
turbulence model was used instead
(AEA Technology, 2002). This turbulence model differs from
the standard k–
model in that in the low Reynolds number k–

model the turbulence properties are damped and directly cal-
culated on the walls, without the use of wall functions. Addi-
tionally the turbulent viscosity is modified as shown in Eq. (5):
k2
 T = C  f  , (5)


where C is a fitting constant set to 0.09 and f is a function
calculated in Eq. (6):


−3.4
f = exp . (6)
(1 + (k 2 /50
))2
The required boundary conditions for the system are complex,
given the time dependent sinusoidal behaviour of the inlet/outlet
boundaries. The velocity pulsation magnitude at the boundary
condition was defined by Eq. (7):
U = Af sin(2f t). (7)
At the top boundary (the “outlet”) pressure was set to be uni-
form, with zero normal gradients for the other variables (i.e.,
Dirichlet condition) whereas, when the flow was entering the
computational domain, the velocity was set to be uniform and
equal to Eq. (7). The lower boundary (the “inlet”), velocity was
set to be uniform and equal to Eq. (7) at all times. The wall
boundary conditions for the low Reynolds number k–
turbu-
lence model were set to no-slip with the kinetic energy and
energy dissipation set to 0.
The oscillation in the flow boundary condition required the
use of a transient simulation. The number of time steps used
for each pulsation period was from 25 to 80 and the number
of iterations per time step was from 35 and 100, respectively.
No difference was found in the results in the two different
simulation procedures. The time for the simulations to reach
periodic steady state was 15 oscillation periods.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. PIV validation
LDV was used to verify the PIV results at a selected mea-
surement point A over the period of a whole oscillation. The
2934 J.M. Bujalski et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 61 (2006) 2930 – 2938
0.2
0.0
Velocity, [m/s]
LDV - Axial velocity
-0.2 PIV - Axial velocity
CFD - Axial velocity
-0.4
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
Time, [s]
Fig. 3. Comparison between LDV, PIV measurements and CFD predictions
of axial velocity component for point A (20 mm amplitude, 1 Hz frequency).
axial velocity data taken using LDV and PIV at point A (14 mm
from the centreline and 7 mm under the doughnut internal, see
Fig. 2) are shown in Fig. 3, and compared with velocity data
from CFD. Fig. 3 shows the time variation of the axial veloc-
ity component over one 1 Hz and 20 mm amplitude oscillation
(Trial 4). This comparison provides evidence that the PIV mea-
surements are accurate and can be used for comparison with
the CFD model.
3.2. PIV and CFD velocity maps
An example of a set of PIV and CFD results are given in
Figs. 4 and 5. The eight images show the time variation of
the flow field as the pulsing progresses through one full cycle,
with the interval between images corresponding to an increment
of 45◦ crank angle. Fig. 4 shows the velocity field over the
first half of the pulsation cycle and Fig. 5 over the second
half. The flow predicted by CFD is shown on the left side and
the corresponding PIV measured flow on the right. The PIV
velocity measurements near the doughnuts could be prone to
error as there is a possibility of laser light scatter from the
doughnut surface. On the downstroke the flow impacts upon
and sweeps across the tops of the disks and doughnuts, while
the undersides of both disks and doughnuts is stagnant. On the
upstrokes, flow impacts on and sweeps across the undersides of
the internals, and the top surfaces are stagnant. This behaviour is
important for surface regeneration of dispersed phase in solvent
extraction.
The most important feature in the pulsed column is the for-
mation of the vortex between the disk and doughnut internals
and in most images the generated vortices are not uniformly
distributed. Furthermore, the vortices move substantially with
time over a cycle. So for example there is a large vortex present
at the angles 0◦ and 45◦ between the doughnut and disk but
almost nothing in the next stage below. A reverse vortex is ob-
served between the angles 180◦ and 225◦ . At the angles 90◦
and 270◦ , although there is no net flow, remnant vortices exist
in the compartments in both the CFD predictions and measure-
ments which contribute to the mixing, break-up and residence
time in each compartment.
The predicted flow in Figs. 4 and 5 agrees well with the
measurements in both shape and magnitude of the vortices.
With the additional quantitative comparison of PIV and CFD
results over a single phase shown in Fig. 3, the agreement is
sufficiently good for there to be a large degree of confidence
in the use of the computational model for design purposes.
Some of the vortices are of slightly different strength in the
measured flow compared with the predictions, and these slight
discrepancies are probably due to the difference in the geometry
between the experiment set-up (gap between the column wall
and doughnut edge) and the CFD model (no gap between the
1.0
doughnut edge and the column wall).
3.3. Axial velocity radial profile
The pulsed column in solvent extraction operation is not a
closed system but operates as a counter-current system with
throughflow of organic downwards and aqueous upwards.
To gauge the effect of the throughflow on the combined
flow field within the column, two trials were carried out in
the single phase apparatus, one with upward throughflow
and the other with downward throughflow superimposed on
the pulsation (trials 12 and 13). In each case the additional
flow was 2 L/min which corresponds to a superficial velocity
of 0.008 m/s.
The effect of throughflow is shown in Fig. 6 which plots the
axial velocity profile on a horizontal line across the column at
the height of point A when the pulsator position is set to phase
0◦ . The additional throughflow in cases 12 and 13 has very
little effect on the velocity profile when compared to the no-
throughflow case, consistent with the small throughflow super-
ficial velocity. At this angle of the pulsator (maximum down-
flow) the axial flow close to the centre of the column is mostly
downwards through the doughnut opening above point A as ex-
pected. The change of direction to up-flow closer to the wall in-
dicates a creation of the vortex. Surprisingly, the flow reverses
yet again very close to the wall to down-flow. This can also be
seen in the top right-hand plot of Fig. 4, as a pronounced down-
flow along the entire outer wall of the column. This secondary
reversal is not captured in the CFD simulation without gap.
In Fig. 7 the axial component of the flow is presented for the
three different flow configurations when the pulsator is at the
position of 180◦ (maximum up-flow). The flow underneath the
doughnut is relatively stationary whilst there is a large upward
flow component near the column wall. Once again the cases
with additional throughflow up and down are quite similar, al-
though unexpectedly the measured upward flow near the wall
for no throughflow is somewhat different, in fact even lower
than the down throughflow case, whereas the two throughflow
cases would be expected to bracket the no throughflow mea-
surements. We will see below that the gap between the dough-
nut and the wall affects the velocity significantly in this region,
and it is possible that due to re-installation of the internals
 J.M. Bujalski et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 61 (2006) 2930 – 2938
Mean Velocity Vectors at Time Phase - 0 Degree
1m/s
0°
CFD Prediction PIV Measurement
Mean Velocity Vectors at Time Phase - 90 Degree
90°
1m/s
CFD Prediction PIV Measurement
Fig. 4. Flow field comparison between PIV measurement and CFD predictions at pulsator phases 0◦ –135◦ .
in the middle of the campaign, the gap was slightly different
for the throughflow cases. Closer to centreline all sets of mea-
surements are quite similar as the flow is mostly radial in this
region, as shown also in Fig. 5.
3.4. Effect of the gap between doughnut edge and column wall
In Figs. 6 and 7 the main discrepancy between the PIV and
the CFD is in the flow near the column wall. It was observed that
in the experimental set-up the doughnut rings did not fit tightly
against the column wall and a gap of varying size was present
in individual doughnut configurations. The CFD geometry was
modified to include a gap of 2 mm between the column wall and
the doughnut edge. The CFD results for the modified geometry
in Figs. 6 and 7 give a better prediction of the axial velocity
than the original CFD results without the 2 mm gap.
The gap between the wall and the doughnut could become
significant in the scale-up of the pulsed column, leading to short
2935
Mean Velocity Vectors at Time Phase - 45 Degree
1m/s 45°
CFD Prediction PIV Measurement
Mean Velocity Vectors at Time Phase - 135 Degree
135°
1m/s
CFD Prediction PIV Measurement
circuiting and possibly the creation of a fast ‘jet’ flow along
the column wall. This additional vertical flow will reduce size
of the generated vortex, thus changing the local flow and shear
rate in the column.
3.5. Pulsation intensity
Fig. 8 shows the comparison of the maximum velocity (up-
ward and downward) at point A as a function of pulsation in-
tensity for trials 1 to 11. The results show the close agreement
between the PIV and the CFD results for the downward velocity
in the pulsation cycle, but there is an over prediction of the up-
ward velocity component at this point. This discrepancy could
be attributed to the turbulence model used as supported by sim-
ilar work of Fei et al. (2000) who found a similar discrepancy
between their CFD modelling using the k–
turbulence model
with their LDV measurements. The results indicate that the ve-
locity component of the pulsed column can be scaled up with
2936 J.M. Bujalski et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 61 (2006) 2930 – 2938
Mean Velocity Vectors at Time Phase - 180 Degree
180°
1m/s
CFD Prediction PIV Measurement
Mean Velocity Vectors at Time Phase - 270 Degree
270°
1m/s
CFD Prediction PIV Measurement
Fig. 5. Flow field comparison between PIV measurement and CFD predictions at pulsator phases 180◦ –315◦ .
the pulsation intensity and that there is reliability in extrapolat-
ing the CFD simulation results in single phase flow to higher
pulsation intensities.
3.6. Energy dissipation
As shown in Figs. 4 and 5 the pulsed flow generates vortices
in the flow field which in turn generate the shear rate neces-
sary for the dispersed phase break-up and coalescence needed
for mass transfer. In turbulent flow the value of shear is linked
to the turbulent energy dissipation,
. Previously in the litera-
ture (Milot et al., 1990; Aoun Nabli et al., 1998) only average
values of the kinetic energy dissipation over a pulsation cy-
cle have been reported. Eq. (8) is a correlation proposed by
Milot et al. (1990) to estimate the average energy dissipation
in a pulsed column as a function of peak-to-peak amplitude, A,
Mean Velocity Vectors at Time Phase - 225 Degree
225°
1m/s
CFD Prediction PIV Measurement
Mean Velocity Vectors at Time Phase - 315 Degree
1m/s
315°
CFD Prediction PIV Measurement
and oscillation period T:

3
A

= 778 . (8)
T
The value of the average energy dissipation for the system of
1 Hz and 20 mm amplitude by Eq. (8) is 0.044 m2 /s3 whilst
the CFD predicted value of
was 0.025 m2 /s3 (k–
turbulence
models are known to underpredict the turbulent properties in
stirred tanks by a similar amount). The average energy dissipa-
tion in the pulsed column might not be representative of the av-
erage level of turbulence and mixing in the operation, and may
only be a crude estimate in the analysis of the column opera-
tion. For example in the analysed system the maximum value
of
at a given time, ranged from 0.0446 m2 /s3 to 0.698 m2 /s3 ,
but the question remains whether the generated maximum
oc-
curs at the point in the pulsation cycle and at a location in the
 J.M. Bujalski et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 61 (2006) 2930 – 2938
0.3
CFD - No through flow (no gap)
0.2
Exp. - No through flow (Trial 4)
Exp. - Up through flow (Trial 13)
Exp. - Down through flow (Trial 12)
Vertical velocity, [m/s]
0.1 CFD - No through flow (2mm gap)
0.0
-0.1
-0.2
-0.3
-0.4
0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03
Radial distance, [m]
Fig. 6. Comparison of the PIV measurements and CFD simulation of axial
velocity component at a line positioned 7 mm under the doughnut at a
pulsation phase set at 0◦ (20 mm amplitude, 1 Hz frequency).
0.30
CFD- No through flow (no gap)
0.25 Exp. - No through flow (Trial 4)
Exp. - Up through flow (Trial 13)
Exp. - Down through flow (Trial 12)
Vertical velocity, [m/s]
0.20 CFD - No through flow(2mm gap)
0.15
0.10
0.05
0.00
-0.05
0.00 0.01 0.02
Radial distance, [m]
Fig. 7. Comparison of the PIV measurements and CFD prediction of axial
velocity component at a line positioned 7 mm under the doughnut at a
pulsation phase set at 180◦ (20 mm amplitude, 1 Hz frequency).
column where the energy can be used effectively for phase
dispersion.
The maximum
for the pulsed column is lower than the pre-
dicted maximum values in stirred tanks under fully turbulent
conditions. Zhou and Kresta (1998) found the values for Rush-
ton turbines to be in a range of 85.2–528 m2 /s3 , but these are
localised values inside the impeller generated vortex which is
comparatively small in volume, whilst 57% of
occurs at a
lower value over majority of vessel volume (Ng and Yianneskis,
2000). Stirred vessels have a large difference between maxi-
mum and minimum energy dissipation—ranging by at least two
orders of magnitude (Ng and Yianneskis, 2000) which gener-
ates a larger number of fine droplets and a broader size distri-
bution. The range of
in the pulsed column is smaller (max-
imum value ranged from 0.0446 to 0.698 m2 /s3 ) generating a
narrower droplet size distribution.
2937
0.2
0.1
0.0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Velocity, [m/s]
-0.1 Intensity (Frequency x Amplitude), [mm/s]
-0.2
-0.3
0°
Maximum velocity Down (CFD)
-0.4 Regression for Down
Maximum velocity Up (CFD)
Regression for Up
-0.5 Maximum velocity Down (PIV)
Point A
Maximum velocity Up (PIV)
-0.6
0.04 0.05
Fig. 8. Point A maximum and minimum velocity at different pulsation inten-
sities: PIV measurement and CFD simulation comparison.
4. Conclusions
The pulsed column operation in single phase flow was inves-
tigated with PIV and LDV experimental techniques. Extensive
sets of PIV measurements have been taken of the unsteady flow
within the column for a range of operating conditions and ac-
180°
curate point measurements taken with LDV have confirmed the
PIV data. The PIV velocity measurements were taken at seven
different phases in the pulsation cycle. The system was mod-
elled with CFD and the simulations were validated by compar-
Point A ing with the measurements at various phases in the pulsation
cycle: the flow field was well matched by the CFD simulation.
The comparison of the CFD and PIV results showed that the
flow field in certain regions of the pulsed column can depend
sensitively on the positioning of the doughnut internal relative
0.03 0.04 0.05
to the column wall if a small gap exists between the two. PIV
measurements and CFD model predictions for the pulsed col-
umn operating in single phase mode show an oscillating sin-
uous flow through the column, with significant regions of low
velocity and hence low shear. The range of
in the pulsed col-
umn is narrower than in a stirred tank which would lead to
different performance e.g. narrower droplet size distribution.
Notation
A amplitude of oscillation, m
B body force, N
C constant in low Re k–
turbulence model
D pulsed column diameter, m
f frequency of oscillation, s−1
f function to determine the turbulent viscosity
k turbulent kinetic energy, m2 /s2
p pressure, Pa
Re Reynolds number, dimensionless
t time, s
T oscillation period, s
U velocity, m/s
2938 J.M. Bujalski et al. / Chemical Engineering Science 61 (2006) 2930 – 2938
Greek letters

energy dissipation, m2 /s3
 viscosity, Pa s
 density of phase, kg/m3
Subscripts
eff effective
P pulsation
T turbulent
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support
for this work from Anglo Platinum, Bateman Solvent Extrac-
tion, BHP Billiton, Cognis Australia Pty Ltd, Kvaerner E&C
Australia Pty Ltd, Minara Resources Ltd, Phelps Dodge Min-
ing Company and WMC Resources Ltd, through the AMIRA
International Project P706 “Improving Solvent Extraction
Technology”.
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