Buoyance

In a reservoir at initial conditions, an equilibrium exists between buoyancy forces and capillary forces. These forces determine the initial distribution of fluids, and hence the volumes of fluid in place. An understanding of the relationship between these forces is useful in calculating volumetries, and in explaining the difference between free water level (FWL) and oil-water contact (OWC) introduced in the last section. 

A well known example of capillary-buoyancy equilibrium is the experiment in which a number of glass tubes of varying diameter are placed into a tray of water. The water level rises up the tubes, reaching its highest point in the narrowest of the tubes. The same observation would be made if the fluids in the system were oil and water rather than air and water. 

As well as preventing liquid carry over in the gas phase, gas carry undef must also be prevented in the liquid phase. Gas bubbles entrained in the liquid phase must be given the opportunity (or residence time) to escape to the gas phase under buoyancy forces. 

Princen and co-workers have treated the more general case where w is too small or y too large to give a cylindrical profile [86] (see also Refs. 87 and 88). In such cases, however, a correction may be needed for buoyancy and Coriolis effects [89] it is best to work under conditions such that Eq. 11-35 applies. The method has been used successfully for the measurement of interfacial tensions of 0.001 dyn/cm or lower [90, 91]. 

This method is smiple but experimentally more cumbersome than the volumetric method and involves the use of a vacuum microbalance or beam balance [22], The solid is suspended from one ann of a balance and its increase in weight when adsorption occurs is measured directly. The dead space calculation is thereby avoided entirely but a buoyancy correction is required to obtain accurate data. Nowadays this method is rarely used. 

The supporting medium was water at 298 K (p = 0.99727), and the density of latex is 1.2049 g cm . The latex particles had an average radius of 2.12 x 10 mm hence, their effective mass corrected for buoyancy is their volume times the density difference Ap between latex and the supporting medium, water... 

The table which follows gives the values of k (buoyancy reduction factor), which is the correction necessary because of the buoyant effect of the air upon the object weighed the table is computed for air with the density of 0.0012 m is the weight in grams of the object when weighed in air weight of object reduced to in vacuo = m + m/1000. 

Density of object weighed Buoyancy reduction factor, k ... 

With gravimetric methods, the magnitude of the buoyancy correction should be assessed. Particular attention must be paid to the adsorbent temperature because of the unavoidable gap between the sample and the balance case (cf. Section 6.2). 

If the buoyancy correction is ignored, the pipet s volume is reported as... 

To ensure that S eas is determined accurately, we calibrate the equipment or instrument used to obtain the signal. Balances are calibrated using standard weights. When necessary, we can also correct for the buoyancy of air. Volumetric glassware can be calibrated by measuring the mass of water contained or delivered and using the density of water to calculate the true volume. Most instruments have calibration standards suggested by the manufacturer. 

Is the failure to correct for buoyancy a constant or proportional source of determinate error ... 

What is the minimum density of a substance necessary to keep the buoyancy correction to less than 0.01% when using brass calibration weights with a density of 8.40 g/cm ... 

Bunsen-Roscoe law Bunte salt Bunte salts Bunte s salt Bunyavirus Buoyancy... 

Buoyant Effect of Air. Weighing operations performed m vacuo are not affected by buoyancy forces. An object in air, however, is subject to a buoyancy force that is equal and opposite to the gravitational force on the mass of air the object displaces (10). If the equal arm balance of Figure 1 is in balance with a test weight of mass, in one pan, and material of mass, m, in the other, m = m if they have the same density. If the densities are different, then the buoyancy forces acting on each pan affect the result. Taking moments about the center pivot point gives... 

If a 1-kg stainless weight (m = 1, OOOg, = 8,000 kg/m ) is added to one pan of the balance in Figure 1, and material with a density of 1,000 kg/m is added to the other until equiHbrium is reached, the amount of the material needed is 1001.05 g, using equation 5. Thus, it takes 1001.05 g of this material to counterbalance 1,000 g of stainless steel, because of the buoyancy effects on the dissimilar volumes. 

Drop Diameter. In extraction equipment, drops are initially formed at distributor no22les in some types of plate column the drops are repeatedly formed at the perforations on each plate. Under such conditions, the diameter is determined primarily by the balance between interfacial forces and buoyancy forces at the orifice or perforation. For an ideal drop detaching as a hemisphere from a circular orifice of diameter and then becoming spherical ... 

Variable-Area Flow Meters. In variable-head flow meters, the pressure differential varies with flow rate across a constant restriction. In variable-area meters, the differential is maintained constant and the restriction area allowed to change in proportion to the flow rate. A variable-area meter is thus essentially a form of variable orifice. In its most common form, a variable-area meter consists of a tapered tube mounted vertically and containing a float that is free to move in the tube. When flow is introduced into the small diameter bottom end, the float rises to a point of dynamic equiHbrium at which the pressure differential across the float balances the weight of the float less its buoyancy. The shape and weight of the float, the relative diameters of tube and float, and the variation of the tube diameter with elevation all determine the performance characteristics of the meter for a specific set of fluid conditions. A ball float in a conical constant-taper glass tube is the most common design it is widely used in the measurement of low flow rates at essentially constant viscosity. The flow rate is normally deterrnined visually by float position relative to an etched scale on the side of the tube. Such a meter is simple and inexpensive but, with care in manufacture and caHbration, can provide rea dings accurate to within several percent of full-scale flow for either Hquid or gas. 

The basic concepts of a gas-fluidized bed are illustrated in Figure 1. Gas velocity in fluidized beds is normally expressed as a superficial velocity, U, the gas velocity through the vessel assuming that the vessel is empty. At a low gas velocity, the soHds do not move. This constitutes a packed bed. As the gas velocity is increased, the pressure drop increases until the drag plus the buoyancy forces on the particle overcome its weight and any interparticle forces. At this point, the bed is said to be minimally fluidized, and this gas velocity is termed the minimum fluidization velocity, The bed expands slightly at this condition, and the particles are free to move about (Fig. lb). As the velocity is increased further, bubbles can form. The soHds movement is more turbulent, and the bed expands to accommodate the volume of the bubbles. 

Equations 3 to 7 indicate the method by which terminal velocity may be calculated. Erom a hydrodynamic force balance that considers gravity, buoyancy, and drag, but neglects interparticle forces, the single particle terminal velocity is... 

Transport Disengaging Height. When the drag and buoyancy forces exerted by the gas on a particle exceed the gravitational and interparticle forces at the surface of the bed, particles ate thrown into the freeboard. The ejected particles can be coarser and more numerous than the saturation carrying capacity of the gas, and some coarse particles and clusters of fines particles fall back into the bed. Some particles also coUect near the wall and fall back into the fluidized bed. 

Buoyancy. The low density, closed-ceUed nature of many ceUular polymers coupled with their moisture resistance and low cost resulted in their immediate acceptance for buoyancy in boats and floating stmctures such as docks and buoys. Since each ceU in the foam is a separate flotation member, these materials caimot be destroyed by a single puncture. 

The combination of stmctural strength and flotation has stimulated the design of pleasure boats using a foamed-in-place polyurethane between thin skins of high tensUe strength (231). Other ceUular polymers that have been used in considerable quantities for buoyancy appHcations are those produced from polyethylene, poly(vinyl chloride), and certain types of mbber. The susceptibUity of polystyrene foams to attack by certain petroleum products that are likely to come in contact with boats led to the development of foams from copolymers of styrene and acrylonitrUe which are resistant to these materials... 

Separations. Foams have important uses in separations, both physical and chemical (51,52). These processes take advantage of several different properties of foams. The buoyancy and mechanical rigidity of foam is exploited to physically separate some materials. The large volume of vapor in a foam can be exploited to filter gases. The large surface area of a foam can also be exploited in the separation of chemicals with different surface activities. 

Fig. 5. Buoyancy level controller. Courtesy of Magnetrol International, Inc.

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