THE REPRESENTATION OF THE NON-IDEAL MIXING IN A FLOW REACTOR BY A NETWORK OF IDEALIZED COMPONENTS

Abstract

The frequency response resulting from the non-ideal mixing occurring in a steady state flow-through vessel was obtained. The vessel was tested under two different sets of mixing conditions. The response data was interpreted such that it could have resulted from an equivalent network of ideally mixed components. The components represent the ideal states of either a completely mixed reactor volume, or no mixing occurring in the direction of flow. Particular emphasis was placed on the detection of parallel flow paths occurring in the test vessels. In the first study the mixing conditions were represented by a cascade of four components. The second set of data was interpreted by a similar cascade network and a dual branched parallel network of six components. Evaluation of the model parameters in the frequency domain was computerized. In the second case, it was concluded that the cascade and parallel networks were best discriminated on the basis of their prediction of reactant conversion rather than their predicted frequency response. Experimental conversion data from both studies was compared to the model predictions.