Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-1989

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Civil Engineering

Major Professor

Gregory D. Reed

Committee Members

R. M. Counce, W. T. Davis, R. B. Robinson

Abstract

The performance of a centrifugal vapor-liquid contactor equipped with high specific surface area packing (>2000 m2/m3) was evaluated for air stripping of jet fuel components from groundwater. Hydraulic test data indicated that the Sherwood flooding correlation which has been proposed for use in designing centrifugal vapor-liquid contactors overestimates the rotational speeds at which flooding occurs. For the mass transfer of performance, a concept of area of a transfer unit (ATU) was introduced to account for the change in fluid loading with radius of the packing torus. The ATU was found to be a strong function of the specific surface area of the packing and to a lesser extent a function of rotor speed and liquid flow rate. A correlation based on the specific surface area of the packing is proposed for predicting the ATU. A simple empirical model is also proposed for determining the power consumed in turning the packing torus at various operating conditions. Previous claims in the literature that centrifugal vapor-liquid contactor is resistant to fouling because of high shear force were found not to be valid for groundwater with high iron content.

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