Residence-time distribution tracer selection

Chemical engineers also use this kind of experiment. It can be utilized to great advantage in chemical reactors to find the "residence time distribution" of the reactor, a crucial piece of information which links microscopic flow behavior, that is, fluid dynamics, to measurables of the system, such as chemical conversion and selectivity. For vessels that are not used for reaction processes, but are used for other operations that are also critically dependent upon mixing, this tracer experiment provides a great deal of insight into how the system behaves. We can analyze how a pulse of injected tracer would behave in the well-stirred vessel we have been analyzing here. 

For a more complete discussion of tracer selection, injection and measurement, see Levenspiel, O., Lai, B. W., and Chatlynne, C. Y., Tracer curves and the residence time distribution, Chem. Eng. Sci., 25, 1611-1613 (1970) Levenspiel, O. and Turner, J. C. R., The interpretation of residence-time e qieriments, Chenu Eng. 

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