Phase three

In almost all parts of the world, electricity is generated and distributed using three parallel circuits, the voltage in each one being out of phase with the next by 120°. While most homes are supplied with just one phase, most industrial establishments have all three phases available. So, for industrial CHP systems, the DC from the fuel cell will need to be converted to three-phase AC. 

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When the fluids being treated contain water, the equilibria most often involve three phases (liquid-liquid-vapor). 

In the case of three-phase equilibria, it is also necessary to account for the solubility of hydrocarbon gases in water. This solubility is proportional to the partial pressure of the hydrocarbon or, more precisely, to its partial fugacity in the vapor phase. The relation which ties the solubility expressed in mole fraction to the fugacity is the following ... 

Development planning and production are usually based on the expected production profile which depends strongly on the mechanism providing the driving force in the reservoir. The production profile will determine the facilities required and the number and phasing of wells to be drilled. The production profile shown in Figure 1.1 is characterised by three phases ... 

The strict definition of a phase is any homogeneous and physically distinct region that is separated from another such region by a distinct boundary . For example a glass of water with some ice in it contains one component (the water) exhibiting three phases liquid, solid, and gaseous (the water vapour). The most relevant phases in the oil industry are liquids (water and oil), gases (or vapours), and to a lesser extent, solids. 

The first three phases listed above are sometimes defined collectively as the pre-project stage. This is the stage in which ideas are developed and tested, but before large funding commitments are made. 

Fig. X-16. (a) Microscopic appearance of the three-phase contact region, (b) Wetting meniscus against a vertical plate showing the meniscus only, adsorbed film only, and joined profile. (From Ref. 226 with permission. Copyright 1980 American Chemical Society.)...

Suppose that the line tension for a given three-phase line is 1 x 10 dyn. Calculate ff for drops of radius 0.1, 0.01, and 0.001 cm if the value for a large drop is 56. Assume water at 20°C. 

D. Platikanov and M. Nedyalkov, Contact Angles and Line Tension at Microscopic Three Phase Contacts, in Microscopic Aspects of Adhesion and Lubrication, J. M. Georges, ed., Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1982. 

In practice, it may be possible with care to float somewhat larger particles than those corresponding to the theoretical maximum. As illustrated in Fig. XIII-7, if the particle has an irregular shape, it will tend to float such that the three-phase contact occurs at an asperity since the particle would have to be depressed considerably for the line of contact to advance further. The resistance to rounding a sharp edge has been investigated by Mason and co-workers [62]. 

While, in principle, a tricritical point is one where three phases simultaneously coalesce into one, that is not what would be observed in the laboratory if the temperature of a closed system is increased along a path that passes exactly tlirough a tricritical point. Although such a difficult experiment is yet to be perfomied, it is clear from theory (Kaufman and Griffiths 1982, Pegg et al 1990) and from experiments in the vicinity of tricritical points that below the tricritical temperature only two phases coexist and that the volume of one slirinks precipitously to zero at T. ... 

Figure A2.5.31. Calculated TIT, 0 2 phase diagram in the vicmity of the tricritical point for binary mixtures of ethane n = 2) witii a higher hydrocarbon of contmuous n. The system is in a sealed tube at fixed tricritical density and composition. The tricritical point is at the confluence of the four lines. Because of the fixing of the density and the composition, the system does not pass tiirough critical end points if the critical end-point lines were shown, the three-phase region would be larger. An experiment increasing the temperature in a closed tube would be represented by a vertical line on this diagram. Reproduced from [40], figure 8, by pennission of the American Institute of Physics.

Rodger P M, A J Stone and D J Tildesley 1988. The Intermolecular Potential of Chlorine. A Three Phase Study. Molecular Physics 63 173-188. 

In three-phase systems the top phase, T, is an oleic phase, the middle phase, Af, is a microemulsion, and the bottom phase, B, is an aqueous phase. Microemulsions that occur ia equiUbrium with oae or two other phases are sometimes called "limiting microemulsions," because they occur at the limits of the siagle-phase regioa. 

Nevertheless, possibiUties for confusion abound. From the definitions of microemulsions and macroemulsions and from Figure 1, it immediately follows that in many macroemulsions one of the two or three phases is a microemulsion. Until recentiy (49), it was thought that all nonmultiple emulsions were either oil-in-water (O/W) or water-in-oil (W/O). However, the phase diagram of Figure 1 makes clear that there are six nonmultiple, two-phase morphologies, of which four contain a microemulsion phase. These six two-phase morphologies are oleic-in-aqueous (OL/AQ, or O/W) and aqueous-in-oleic (AQ/OL, or W/O), but also, oleic-in-microemulsion (OL/MI), microemulsion-in-oleic (MI/OL), aqueous-in-microemulsion (AQ/MI), and microemulsion-in-aqueous (MI/AQ) (49). 

Fig. 7. Cartoon illustration of the twelve theoretical morphologies of three-phase macroemulsions in which one the phases is a middle-phase...

In a recent report (79), a 150—200 mg/cm Parylene C coating provided protection against moisture uptake by three-phase, polyimide, microballoons, and air, syntactic foams. In a previously reported coating of a similar foam, the stated purpose was strengthening (80). 

Fig. 7. The concept of contact angle with a captive bubble in an aqueous medium, adhering to a hydrophobic sofld P is the three-phase contact point. Here, the vector passes through P and forms a tangent to the curved surface of the air bubble. The contact angle 0 is drawn into the Hquid.

Open-Arc Furnaces. Most of the open-arc furnaces are used in melting and refining operations for steel and iron (Fig. 1). Although most furnaces have three electrodes and operate utilizing three-phase a-c power to be compatible with power transmission systems, d-c furnaces are becoming more common. Open-arc furnaces are also used in melting operations for nonferrous metals (particularly copper), slag, refractories, and other less volatile materials. 

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