Buckingham method

The Buckingham method is based on the Buckingham Pi Theorem, which states... 

Use the Buckingham method to determine the dimensionless groups significant to a given mass-transfer problem. 

The dimensional matrix is simply the matrix formed by tabulating the exponents of the fundamental dimensions M, L, and t, which appear in each of the variables involved. The rank of a matrix is the number of rows in the largest nonzero determinant which can be formed from it. An example of the evaluation of r and i, as well as the application of the Buckingham method, follows. 

Natural convection currents will develop if there exists a significant variation in density within a liquid or gas phase. The density variations may be due to temperature differences or to relatively large concentration differences. Consider natural convection involving mass transfer from a vertical plane wall to an adjacent fluid. Use the Buckingham method to determine the dimensionless groups formed from the variables significant to this problem. 

Table 2.1 presents a non-exhaustive list of expressions of the characteristic times corresponding to the most commonly used phenomena involved in chemical reactors. The previous definitions unfortunately do not always enable one to build the expressions presented in Table 2.1. Various methods can be used such as a blind dimensional analysis, similar to the Buckingham method used for dimensionless numbers [7], which can be applied to the list of fundamental physical and chemical properties. Nevertheless, the most relevant method consists in extracting the expressions from a mass/heat/force balance.

The method of obtaining the important dimensionless numbers from the b sic differential equations is generally the preferred method. In many cases, however, we are not able to formulate a differential equation which clearly applies. Then a more general procedure is required, which is known as the Buckingham method. In this method the listing of the important variables in the particular physical problem is done first. Then we determine the number of dimensionless parameters into which the variables may be combined by using the Buckingham pi theorem. 

The range of systems that have been studied by force field methods is extremely varied. Some force fields liave been developed to study just one atomic or molecular sp>ecies under a wider range of conditions. For example, the chlorine model of Rodger, Stone and TUdesley [Rodger et al 1988] can be used to study the solid, liquid and gaseous phases. This is an anisotropic site model, in which the interaction between a pair of sites on two molecules dep>ends not only upon the separation between the sites (as in an isotropic model such as the Lennard-Jones model) but also upon the orientation of the site-site vector with resp>ect to the bond vectors of the two molecules. The model includes an electrostatic component which contciins dipwle-dipole, dipole-quadrupole and quadrupole-quadrupole terms, and the van der Waals contribution is modelled using a Buckingham-like function. 

Example Buckingham Pi Method—Heat-Transfer Film Coefficient It is desired to determine a complete set of dimensionless groups with which to correlate experimental data on the film coefficient of heat transfer between the walls of a straight conduit with circular cross section and a fluid flowing in that conduit. The variables and the dimensional constant believed to be involved and their dimensions in the engineering system are given below ... 

The pressure dependence of wavenumbers has been investigated theoretically by LD methods on the basis of a Buckingham 6-exp potential. In the studies of Pawley and Mika [140] and Dows [111] the molecules were treated as rigid bodies in order to obtain the external modes as a function of pressure. Kurittu also studied the external and internal modes [141] using his deformable molecule model [116]. The force constants of the intramolecular potential (modified UBFF) were obtained by fitting to the experimental wavenumbers. The results of these studies are in qualitative agreement with the experimental findings. 

A technique which can assist in the scale-up of commercial plants designs is the use of scale models. A scale model is an experimental model which is smaller than the hot commercial bed but which has identical hydrodynamic behavior. Usually the scale model is fluidized with air at ambient conditions and requires particles of a different size and density than those used in the commercial bed. The scale model relies on the theory of similitude, sometimes through use of Buckingham s pi theorem, to design a model which gives identical hydrodynamic behavior to the commercial bed. Such a method is used in the wind tunnel testing of small model aircraft or in the towing tank studies of naval vessels. 

The same dimensionless functionality is apparent as from the Buckingham pi method. 

Dimensional Analysis is.a method by which the variables characterizing a phenomenon may be related. Accdg to Eschbach (Ref 2)> it is fundamentally identical with the analysis of physical equations, and in particular, with the analysis of physical differential equations. Methods of Lord Rayleigh and of E. Buckingham are used in ballistics, thermodynamics and fluid mechanics... 

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