2002 Volume 35 Issue 7 Pages 604-612
The objective of this study is to develop and evaluate a new Monte-Carlo simulation method to predict the hydrodynamics of rotating disc contactors (RDC) with continuous flows of liquid phases and with drop breakage. This method has the advantage of using individual drops controlled by breakage phenomenological parameters of probability of breakage, number of generated drops and their size distribution. Drop coalescence is ignored due to the very low hold-up and the high interfacial tension of the chemical system. The Monte Carlo stochastic method is applied by using the elements of generated vectors of random numbers having given distribution and with sequences of repeatable or non-repeatble. The limiting values are obtained from correlations that are based on single drop experiments. A stage-wise explicit calculation method with the use of a population balance is employed to follow the steady flow of dispersed phase. The generated results are compared with the experimental results obtained from a pilot RDC and a good agreement is observed. The changes of local hold-up and mean drop size along the column are also described reasonably.
