Experimental Investigation of Flooding and dro‎p Size in a Kuhni Extraction Column

In this work, the hydrodynamic behavior of a Kuhni extraction column has been investigated experimentally. The experiments were carried out in the absence of mass transfer for two different standard chemical systems. In the experiments operating variables including agitation speed, flow rate of both liquid phases and interfacial tension have been studied. Sauter-mean drop diameter, flooding velocity and holdup at flooding have been measured in the Kuhni column. The results showed that Sauter-mean diameter are strongly affected by agitation speed and interfacial tension whereas the effects of continuous phase and dispersed phase flow rates are negligible. Two rigorous empirical correlations are proposed for predicting flooding velocities and Sauter-mean drop diameterwith mean deviation of 5.7% and 7.2%, respectively. The mean drop size correlation is a function of column geometry, operating conditions and physical properties of liquid systems. Good agreement between predictions and experiments is found for all operating conditions investigated.