Chemical Engineering and Processing, Vol.40, No.1, 49-57, 2001
Minimum agitation speed for liquid-liquid-gas dispersion in mechanically agitated vessels
The present investigation deals with the determination of the minimum agitation speed, N-cdg, for complete liquid-liquid dispersion in,mechanically agitated liquid-liquid mixtures sparged with a gas phase. The minimum impeller speed needed to completely disperse a liquid-liquid system was accurately predicted by the Skelland and Ramsay correlation [Skelland and Ramsey (Ind. Eng, Chem. Res., 1987; 26(1): 77-81)]. A new correlation is proposed for the prediction of minimum agitation speed, for three phase (liquid-liquid-gas) system as: (Fr)(min) = C-2(T/D)(2 alpha) phi (0.106)(Ga . Bo)(-0.084)(Re-G)(-0.013) A plot of (Fr)(min) predicted by the above equation and those obtained experimentally showed excellent agreement. This expression correlates experimental data of the present investigation with in a maximum error of +/- 15%.