LOCAL AND AVERAGE STATIC HOLDUPS IN A COUNTERCURRENT FLOW ROTARY DISC CONTACTOR

Abstract

Local and average static holdups in a rotary disc contactor were studied under various operating conditions. All experiments were performed by use of a swarm of dispersed phase drops and countercurrent continuous phase flow. Different parameters consisting of droplet size, static holdup, and continuous and dispersed phase flow rates were measured experimentally. Based on experimental data, two dimensionless correlations were proposed in the case of immovable rotor discs and also in the case of rotating rotor discs. Finally, two other correlations, in terms of dimensionless numbers, were proposed for predicting average static holdup in the column as a function of average mother drop size, physical properties, rotor speed, phase flow rates, and number of stages in the column for the two mentioned cases. The maximum absolute average relative error and standards deviation of the proposed correlations are 9.8% and 7.3%, respectively.