Liquid sheet industrial applications

As indicated by Mansour and Chigier,12091 all previous experimental studies focused onflat liquid sheets into quiescent air. In many industrial applications, liquid sheets are injected into air streams... 

Liquid impregnated (or immobilized) in the pores of a thin microporous sohd support is defined as a supported liquid membrane (SLM or ILM). The SLM may be fabricated in different geometries. Flat sheet SLM is useful for research, but the surface area to volume ratio is too low for industrial applications. Spiral-wound and hoUow-fiber SLMs have much higher surface areas of the LM modules (103 and 104 m /m, respectively [23]). The main problem of SLM technology is the stability the chemical stability of the carrier, the mechanical stability of porous support, etc. 

Supported Liquid Membranes. A SLM can be fabricated in at least three different geometries. Planar or flat sheet SLMs are very useful for laboratory research and development purposes, but the surface area to volume ratio of flat sheets is too low for industrial applications. Spiral wound and hollow fiber geometries can... 

A sheet of rubber or of rubber-textile composite moulded, if desired, to a particular shape and used in a wide variety of applications in industry, e.g., diaphragm packings, diaphragm-operated valves for steam, air or liquids. 

The quantity of flammable liquids or gases or heated combustibles can be indicative of the need for fixed water spray fire protection. Table 8-4, developed from FM Data Sheet 7-14, suggests quantities of flammables where fixed water spray fire protection should be considered based on one insurance provider s guidance. Some company internal guidelines and practices allow up to 5,000 gal (18,927 I) in the largest vessel before water spray protection is recommended. Additional guidance on fixed fire protection is available in API Publication 2030, Application of Water Spray Systems for Fire Protection in the Petroleum Industry, (API, 1998). 

The third main class of separation methods, the use of micro-porous and non-porous membranes as semi-permeable barriers (see Figure 2c) is rapidly gaining popularity in industrial separation processes for application to difficult and highly selective separations. Membranes are usually fabricated from natural fibres, synthetic polymers, ceramics or metals, but they may also consist of liquid films. Solid membranes are fabricated into flat sheets, tubes, hollow fibres or spiral-wound sheets. For the micro-porous membranes, separation is effected by differing rates of diffusion through the pores, while for non-porous membranes, separation occurs because of differences in both the solubility in the membrane and the rate of diffusion through the membrane. Table 2 is a compilation of the more common industrial separation operations based on the use of a barrier. A more comprehensive table is given by Seader and Henley.1... 

University in cooperation with industry, have shown promise for commercial application. These films can be sandwiched between conducting plastic films to form continuous sheets. They are highly scattering in the OFF state and window-glass clear in the ON state. They do not use surface alignment layers, polarizers or cell seals. They are durable and aesthetically pleasing. A new class of electro-optic materials, they are superior in many ways to conventional liquid crystal shutters and offer exciting new applications. 

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