Liquid redistribution

There has been considerable speculation regarding the depth of packing that could be installed before liquid redistribution is required. Silvey and Keller found no loss of efficiency in distillation with 18-ft deep beds of 1 A-in. ceramic... 

Figure 9-14. Liquid redistribution in packed towers. Used by permission of Norton Chemical Process Products Corp.

The Dynamics of Liquid Redistribution in Catalyst Pellets and Granular Catalyst Beds... 

Figure 9.5 A scheme of liquid redistribution in 1D (a) and 3D (b) capillaries of arbitrary irregular form (by [3]).

The maximum bed height that should be used without liquid redistribution depends on the type of packing and the process. Distillation is less susceptible to maldistribution than... 

Indeed, as fluid flows, foam channels closed above grow in thickness at the bottom, thus creating an increasing counteraction to the gravitational force, which slows down the outflow until equilibrium is attained [214]. It should be noted that this effect is possible only in closed deformable channels with negative curvature, which are typical of foam. According to [324], the capillary rarefaction is a characteristic of the foam compressibility and determines its elastic resistance to the strain caused by the liquid redistribution. 

Another aspect of liquid redistribution involves the handling of liquid that has migrated to the walls... 

Reflux and Intermediate Feed Distribution and Liquid Redistribution in Packed Towers... 

Liquid redistributors are used wherever an intermediate liquid feed is introduced into a packed column, and between packed sections, wherever liquid redistribution is required. 

Figure 7.7 Schematic illustration of a) dissolution-precipitation and b) liquid redistribution mechanisms in a material containing a grain boundary glassy phase.

A two-dimensional model of circular particles has been developed to describe the liquid redistribution behaviors, which assumes that the chemical potential of the liquid in all the pores in a given particle array is the same at equilibrium [84]. When an atom is located under the surface of a liquid-vapor meniscus, with an average radius of curvature r, its chemical potential is given by... 

Shaw TM (1986) Liquid redistribution during liquid-phase sintoing. J Am Ceram Soc 69 27-34... 

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