Analysis of Residence Time Distribution of Fluid Flow by Axial Dispersion Model
Analysis of Residence Time Distribution of Fluid Flow by Axial Dispersion Model
Analysis of Residence Time Distribution of Fluid Flow by Axial Dispersion Model
Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Bandung Institute of Technology,
Jl. Ganesha 10, Bandung 40132, Indonesia
b
Centre for Applications of Isotopes and Radiation Technology - National Nuclear Energy Agency,
Jl. Lebak Bulus Raya No. 49, Jakarta 12440, Indonesia.
Corresponding author. E-mail: sugi@batan.go.id
Abstract. Radioactive tracer 82Br in the form of KBr-82 with activity 1 mCi has been injected into steel pipeline to
qualify the extent dispersion of water flowing inside it. Internal diameter of the pipe is 3 in. The water source was
originated from water tank through which the water flow gravitically into the pipeline. Two collimated sodium iodide
detectors were used in this experiment each of which was placed on the top of the pipeline at the distance of 8 and 11 m
from injection point respectively. Residence time distribution (RTD) curves obtained from injection of tracer are
elaborated numerically to find information of the fluid flow properties. The transit time of tracer calculated from the
mean residence time (MRT) of each RTD curves is 14.9 s, therefore the flow velocity of the water is 0.2 m/s. The
dispersion number, D/uL, for each RTD curve estimated by using axial dispersion model are 0.055 and 0.06
respectively. These calculations are performed after fitting the simulated axial dispersion model on the experiment
curves. These results indicated that the extent of dispersion of water flowing in the pipeline is in the category of
intermediate.
Keywords: Radioactive tracer, RTD, Dispersion number, Axial dispersion model.
Pacs: 23.20.En, 28.20.Gd
INTRODUCTION
Concept of residence time distribution (RTD)
obtained from injection of various tracers has long
been used for parameter characterization of flow
systems [1]. Among the various available tracer, emitting radioisotopes offer several advantages over
conventional ones such as high detection sensitivity,
in-situ detection, availability in a wide range of
compatible forms, stability under hostile industrial
environment [2-4]
The measured RTD is used to analyze
hydrodynamic behavior of system. In pilot scale
industrial systems, the experimentally measured RTD
is used to optimize the design parameters and to
develop the mathematical model for prediction of the
hydrodynamic behavior of the systems. In addition,
RTD is also used to identify various malfunctions and
qualification of degree of mixing in pilot scale and in
large-scale industrial systems [5,6]
EXPERIMENT
A radiotracer experiments was performed to
measure the RTD of water flowing in a horizontal
stainless steel pipeline of 3 (7.62 x 10-2 m) inner
diameter. The water flows at ambient conditions
gravitically from water tank. 82Br bromide isotope
(half life: 35.7 h and energy 0.776 MeV (85%) as
257
(5)
(1)
258
(6)
dimensionless
tracer
where:
is vessel dispersion number
concentration,
is Peclet number),
is
(reciprocal to
mean linear velocity, is axial dispersion coefficient,
is tracer concentration at time ,
is tracer
concentration at time = 0,
is dimensionless
distance, is distance variable and
is dimensionless time.
The Peclet number ( ) can be considered as the
ratio between the transport rate by convection and
transport rate by dispersion. The physical meaning
could be understood from the following two extremes
[2,7].
is infinite the dispersion rate is
In case
negligible compared to the convection rate and the
flow is said to be ideal plug flow.
approaches zero the convection rate is
In case
much slower than the dispersion rate and the flow
is said to be completely mixed flow.
Solution of Eq. (6) is different for different
boundary conditions. There are four physical boundary
conditions encountered in industrial system, i.e.
closed-closed, open-closed, closed-open and openopen. In this experiment, the system is considered as
open-open system, therefore the solution of Eq. 6 for
this experiment is written as [1]
= minimum
(8)
(7)
with boundary conditions at
(at the inlet):
and at
(at the outlet):
.
One of the oldest and the simplest techniques of
parameter estimation is the moments method, which
involves the comparison of variances of the model and
experimental distribution function. Unfortunately there
are some inherent computational errors involved in the
variance of the measured response curves. In addition
to inherent computational error, the presences of the
tail due to the small value of concentration also
contributes a large error for the computed moments
[2,8].
The disadvantage of the moment method could be
avoided by fitting the complete model RTD curve with
the experimental RTD curve. The curve fitting method
is used in this experiment to fit the two curves and to
obtain the optimum model parameters. The quality of
the fit is judged by choosing the model parameters to
minimize the sum of the squares of the differences
between the experimental and model computed curve
)
The values of the model parameters (MRT and
corresponding to the minimum value of root mean
259
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