A transient method for the study of wetting in a liquid-liquid contactor
Abstract
The influence of packing material wettability on the dispersion transient flow in a disc and doughnut pulsed column has been studied. The outlet flow rate of the dispersed organic phase has been measured vs time until steady-state is reached (outlet flow rate equals inlet flow rate). Experiments have been carried out with two types of packing materials, namely stainless steel (non-wetting) and PTFE (wetting). Comparisions and integral analysis of the results exhibit the effect of toluene wettability on the dispersion residence time with a PTFE packing. Considering the fact that no redispersion of the wetting film occurs, it is possible to derive the volume of toluene wetting the PTFE packing during the column filling. Two major effects are observed: on the one hand, the wetting process generates an apparent delay in the outlet flow rate curve obtained with PTFE plates compared to that obtained with stainless-steel plates (transient regime). On the other hand, the slope of the outlet flow rate is decreasing as the output flow rate value tends toward the inlet flow rate (steady state). The first effect is due to drop-plate coalescence, whereas the second effect has been identified as drop-wetting film coalescence. From the experimental outlet flow rate curves and observations, a wetting process model has been postulated to predict the wetting phase flow rate as the column is filled with the dispersed phase. The main parameters of the model are the wetting coefficient kw and the volumetric fraction of the wetting phase ~w. The fitting of these parameters with experimental results reveals that the wetting rate of the drop-plate coalescence (transient regime) is two orders of magnitude larger than the drop-film coalescence rate (steady state).
Related
- On the hydrodynamic behaviour of the immersed boundary-lattice Boltzmann method for wetting problems (a)
- Spectral element lattice Boltzmann method for non-ideal gases with partial wetting boundary condition
- A ghost-cell immersed boundary method for the shallow water equations on Cartesian grids: mass conservation and wetting and drying over variable topography
- Two-step transient liquid phase bonding of NiTi to Ti-6Al-4V through a NbZrW barrier
- A semicoherent resampling method for long-transient gravitational wave searches with applications to subsolar-mass primordial black-hole binaries
BibTeX
@article{mate2026transient,
title = {{A transient method for the study of wetting in a liquid-liquid contactor}},
author = {A. Mate and Jérôme Morchain and Olivier Masbernat and Christophe Gourdon},
journal = {Chemical Engineering Science},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/s0009-2509(96)00372-7},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05801954v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - A transient method for the study of wetting in a liquid-liquid contactor
AU - A. Mate
AU - Jérôme Morchain
AU - Olivier Masbernat
AU - Christophe Gourdon
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/16
JO - Chemical Engineering Science
DO - 10.1016/s0009-2509(96)00372-7
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05801954v1
AB - The influence of packing material wettability on the dispersion transient flow in a disc and doughnut pulsed column has been studied. The outlet flow rate of the dispersed organic phase has been measured vs time until steady-state is reached (outlet flow rate equals inlet flow rate). Experiments have been carried out with two types of packing materials, namely stainless steel (non-wetting) and PTFE (wetting). Comparisions and integral analysis of the results exhibit the effect of toluene wettability on the dispersion residence time with a PTFE packing. Considering the fact that no redispersion of the wetting film occurs, it is possible to derive the volume of toluene wetting the PTFE packing during the column filling. Two major effects are observed: on the one hand, the wetting process generates an apparent delay in the outlet flow rate curve obtained with PTFE plates compared to that obtained with stainless-steel plates (transient regime). On the other hand, the slope of the outlet flow rate is decreasing as the output flow rate value tends toward the inlet flow rate (steady state). The first effect is due to drop-plate coalescence, whereas the second effect has been identified as drop-wetting film coalescence. From the experimental outlet flow rate curves and observations, a wetting process model has been postulated to predict the wetting phase flow rate as the column is filled with the dispersed phase. The main parameters of the model are the wetting coefficient kw and the volumetric fraction of the wetting phase ~w. The fitting of these parameters with experimental results reveals that the wetting rate of the drop-plate coalescence (transient regime) is two orders of magnitude larger than the drop-film coalescence rate (steady state).
SN - 0009-2509
SN - 1873-4405
ER -