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Continuous Flow Systems. Distribution of Residence Times
Continuous Flow Systems. Distribution of Residence Times
Continuous Flow Systems. Distribution of Residence Times
DISTRIBUTION OF
RESIDENCE TIMES
P. V. D A N C K W E R T S
Department of Chemical Engineering, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge, England, U.K.
Summary--When a fluid flows through a vessel at a constant rate, either "piston-flow" or perfect mixing is
usually assumed. In practice, many systems do not conform to either of these assumptions, so that
calculations based on them may be inaccurate. It is explained how distribution-functions for residence-
times can be defined and measured for actual systems. Open and packed tubes are discussed as systems
about which predictions can be made. The use of the distribution-functionsis illustrated by showing how
they can be used to calculate the etficiencies of reactors and blenders. It is shown how models may be used
to predict the distribution of residence-times in large systems.
1
/r
0
./
/,
0
llY 1
Fig. 1. F-diagrams: (a) piston flow; (b) piston flow with some longitudinal mixing; (c) complete mixing; (d)
dead water.
of information about the behaviour of the fluid flow- Differentiating eq. (2) with respect to 0,
ing through the vessel. As will be shown later, much of
this information can be summarised by two numbers 1 - E(O')dO' = V I ( O ) (4)
V
which can be derived from the F-diagram. The dia-
gram also enables certain calculations to be made
and hence from eq. (3)
concerning the performance of the system when used,
for instance, as a blender or reactor.
1 - F(O) = V I(0). (5)
The shape of the F-diagram depends on the relative 1)
times taken by various portions of the fluid to flow
through the vessel, or, in other words, on the distribu- Equation (4) gives the relationship between E(O) and
tion of residence-times. Those elements of the material I(0), while eq. (5) shows how the latter function can be
in the vessel which have been in it for a time 0 are said determined from the F-diagram.
to have an "age" 0, and the fraction of the material in The same information can be obtained in a some-
the system having at any instant ages between 0 and what different way, which may prove more convenient
(0 + dO) is I(0)dO. The fraction of the material having under some circumstances. Suppose a quantity Q of
ages between 0 and (0 + dO) at the moment of leaving some substance (a radioactive tracer might be chosen
the system is E(O)dO. I and E may be called the for ease of estimation) is injected into the entering
internal and exit age-distribution functions, respec- stream virtually instantaneously--that is, within a pe-
tively. The relationship between E, I and F can be riod very short compared to V/v. As before, samples
shown by imagining the ingoing stream, as before, to are taken at various times 0 after the injection; the
change from white to red at time 0 = 0. At a time concentration of the injected material in the exit
0 later the balance sheet for the red material is: stream at time 0 is C(O). Then it can be shown, by
methods similar to those used above, that
entered: vO
still in system: V
j.o I(O')dO'
Qd
C(O)=-~-~{F(O)}=QE(o). (6)
0
Plots of VC(O)/Q vs vO/V, which may be called C-
left system:
r" g(O')dO' dO". diagrams, are shown in Fig. 2 for the systems whose
F-diagrams are given in Fig. 1. Note that
3o"=o do'=o
The last follows because the rate of outflow of red
V L[.Oco
Q ( ) d{VO~
[--() = 1 (7)
material at any time 0" after the change of colour is
so that the area under every C-diagram is equal to
v j~0"
0
E(O')dO'. unity.
It has been assumed in the foregoing that the forms
of the functions I and E do not vary with time. In fact,
Thus the conservation equation for red material is however, instability of flow may lead to fluctuations in
the internal and exit age-distributions, and cause ob-
--V =
°fl l(O')dO' +-~
;ofo
,,=o ,=o E(O')dO' dO".
(2)
served values of F(O) to oscillate about some smooth
curve of the kind shown in Fig. 1. These fluctuations
will generally be random in nature, and by making
a number of determinations of the F-diagram and
Also, the total fraction F(O) of red material in the averaging, the mean form of the diagram can be
outflow at time 0 is obtained. The problems raised by such fluctuations
will be considered on another occasion; for the mo-
F(O) =
foE(0') d0'. (3) ment attention will be confined to cases where they
may be ignored.
Continuous flow systems 3859
b e d
t A
0 t g O
J\.
! d O t d O I
vO/v.
Fig. 2. C-diagrams: (a) piston flow; (b) piston flow with some longitudinal mixing; (c) complete mixing; (d)
dead water.
ffE(O)dO = 1 (9)
t-A
[because the integrals in eqs (8) and (9) represent the
total fractions of material, in the vessel and at the exit,
respectively, having ages between 0 and oo--namely,
all the material in each case]. Equation (8) implies
that the area between the curve F(O) vs vO/V and the
line F(O) = 1 is equal to unity. It can be seen immedi-
ately that the two shaded areas are equal in Fig. 3,
0
Y t
v~v.-----.-
g
It can be seen from Fig. 3 that the last integral is equal H varies from 0 for piston-flow to values approaching
to 1. 1 when most of the space in the vessel is dead water.
The average age of the material in the system at any For the completely mixed vessel [Fig. l(c)], H = 1/e.
time is/i~, where The magnitude of H is a measure of the deviation
from piston-flow. Its significance is most easily vis-
0,=
fo O.l(O)dO=-~ O{1- F(O)}dO. (12) ualised as follows: if the colour of the inflowing stream
changes suddenly from white to red, H is equal to the
fraction of the vessel which will still be occupied by
Integrating by parts we have
white fluid after a volume of red fluid equal to the
/3 ( ' 1 volume of the vessel has flowed in.
= ~ J r = o 02 dF(0). (13) The hold-back is of importance in connection with
chemical reactors and the successive flow of fluids
The integral in eq. (12) or eq. (13) can be evaluated through pipes and other vessels. In the former case it
graphically with the help of the F-diagram. will usually be true to say that if the reactants are
adequately mixed before or shortly after entering the
HOLD-BACK AND SEGREGATION vessel, the output of the reactor will be greatest when
The systems illustrated in Fig. l(a)-(d) show in the hold-back is least (although the reverse may be
progressively greater degree a quality which will be true for autocatalytic reactions). A high hold-back
called "hold-back'. In a system which displays hold- means that much of the volume of the reactor is
back, some elements of fluid spend more, others less, occupied by material which has already undergone
than the average time, V/v, in the vessel. In a system reaction, while much reactant passes rapidly through
3860 P. V. DANCKWERTS
the vessel by a "short-circuit" route. The magnitude of The segregation is then given the negative value
the hold-back gives only a general idea of the behav- - A1 to indicate the nature of the departure from
iour of the system, however; the whole F-diagram perfect mixing. In a case such as that illustrated in
(and possibly other information) is needed if the ac- Fig. l(b), the two curves may cut twice, as indicated in
tual performance of the reactor is to be calculated. Fig. 6.
This subject is discussed in a later section. In such cases A1 + A3 = A2, and the segregation is
An indication of the efficiency of mixing in a system equal to - A2. S varies from + 1/e for piston-flow to
can be given by a single quantity, S, which will be values approaching - 1 when most of the space in the
called the "segregation", and can be derived from the system is dead water.
F-diagram as follows. If one superimposes the F-dia- The sense in which the word "mixing" has been
grams for a perfectly mixed system I-eq. (1)] and for an used here should be clearly understood. We are not
imperfectly mixed system such as that represented in concerned with homogeneity, but with the age-distri-
Fig. 1(b), the result will be similar to Fig. 4. bution of material in the vessel and in the outgoing
The degree of departure of the system from perfect stream. If these distributions are the same, the system
mixing will be indicated by the size of the shaded area is said to be perfectly mixed, although there might, in
(A1 + A2). However, since the area between each the experiment described, be a perceptible non-uni-
curve, and the line F(O)= 1 is the same, the two formity of colour. On the other hand, when a fluid
shaded regions have the same area (A1 = A2). It is flows through a pipe with a high degree of turbulence,
thus convenient to define the segregation S quantitat- the segregation as defined above may approach that
ively as the area A1 between the F-diagram of the for piston-flow, although mixing in directions at right-
system and the curve F(O)= 1 - e -v°/v, up to the angles to the axis of flow may be very efficient, ensur-
point (at 0 = T) where the curves cross; it is thus ing that at any given moment the composition will be
equal to half the total shaded area. uniform across each cross-section and in the outflow-
When there is dead water in the system the posi- ing fluid.
tions of the curves may be inverted, as in Fig. 5. As pointed out by Gilliland and Mason I-9], al-
though the F-diagram for a fluidised bed may be quite
close to that for perfect mixing, other tests show that
longitudinal mixing is in fact not very efficient, and
moreover a considerable proportion of the gas passes
through the bed in the form of bubbles.
Under some circumstances, when the fluid con-
cerned is a gas, molecular diffusion between neigh-
bouring elements of fluid may play a material part in
determining the shape of the F-diagram. In liquids,
however, diffusion coefficients are so small that only
hydrodynamic effects will usually be of significance.
~a
o , - "
At
vO/v - - vO/V - -
Fig. 5. Fig. 6.
Continuous flow systems 3861
since longitudinal mixing must take place. Many in Fig. 8]. Hence
cases, however, are probably amenable to the math-
eft(L - uO~
ematical treatment which follows. 2F(0) = I - \2~-D0/ (18)
Consider a packed tubular vessel of length L,
through which fluid flows with a mean axial velocity and since v/V = u/L (V being the void volume of the
u. At time 0 = 0 the colour of the fluid changes from vessel)
white to red. Now if the flow were of piston-type, the
plane boundary between red and white would move eft( 1 - vO/V ~.
down the tube with velocity u. We shall denote this 2F(0) = 1 - \2x/(vO/V)(D/Lu)/ (19)
imaginary plane by x = 0 and use it as the origin of
a frame of reference moving down the tube with uni- The F-diagram will thus be determined entirely by the
form velocity u, so that at time 0 the plane x = 0 is value of D/Lu. It will have the general shape shown in
distant uO from the entry, and the x-coordinates of the Figs 1 (b) and 9.
ends of the tube are ( - uO) and (L - uO), respectively If we let
(see Fig. 7). eft(z) = 1 - 2F (20)
The longitudinal velocity of any element of fluid
relative to the plane x = 0 will fluctuate irregularly. At eq. (19) becomes, on rearrangement,
times the element will be close to a solid surface, and
viscous forces will slow it down, while at other times it 1 - vO/V 2 [-DD
will be near the centre of a channel and moving at z.,/vo/v x/~" (21)
a velocity greater than the mean; part of the time may
be spent in regions of (urbulence where the element (Values of z corresponding to given values of F can be
will undergo rapid and irregular fluctuations in velo- found with the help of Fig. 8.)
city. If the packing is quite randomly arranged, with- For a given flow-rate and depth of packing, the
out any channelling, each element of fluid will travel left-hand side of eq. (21) should be constant if the
at the same average velocity, and will experience fluc- diffusion equation (15) is obeyed. However, eq. (21) is
tuations of the same average magnitude and fre- not very suitable for testing the diffusion hypothesis
quency. It is clear that the ordinary "random walk" or for determining the value of D since the expression
theory [10] can be applied to such behaviour; the on the left-hand side is very sensitive to small errors in
result will be redistribution of red and white material F over the range of greatest importance. The value of
according to the laws of diffusion. That is, if c is the D is probably more easily determined from the slope
mean concentration (volume fraction) of red material
at a plane x at time O,
t~C
o6-
02C
(15) ! 1
CES 50-24-B
3862 P. V. DANCKWERTS
/ T
2R
L
Fig. 10.
/
0"# 1"0 I"1
type of petroleum to another, or from normal to
pigmented dope, the mean composition of the liquid
leaving the pipe will change only gradually from one
pure component to the other, and a large volume of
mixed liquid will be discharged. If certain simplifying
assumptions are made, the form of the F-diagram is
easily calculated. (Similar calculations have been
¥~//V " "
made by Bosworth 1-2] and by Fowler and Brown
[7].)
Fig. 9. F-diagram calculated for flow through packed col-
umn compared with experimental points. In the first place, entrance-effects will be ignored (as
in the derivation of Poiseuille's formula), and the
liquid will be assumed to be everywhere in unac-
of the F-diagram at vO/V = 1, we find celerated laminar flow with a parabolic velocity-
distribution; provided the ratio of the length to the
dF diameter of the pipe is sufficiently large ( ~> 0.06Re)
a - 2 X/~--~- (22)
entrance effects will in fact be unimportant. Secondly,
it will be assumed that the two liquids have the same
D/Lu can be calculated from this expression, the F-
density and viscosity, and behave as Newtonian
diagram calculated from eq. (19), and the results com-
fluids. Thirdly, molecular diffusion will be ignored.
pared with the experimental curve. D should, of
If ti is the mean velocity and u the velocity at
course, be independent of L for a given u.
a distance r from the axis of a pipe of radius R, we
The hold-back in the system is equal to ~/D V/nv or
have the well-known relationship
Figure 9 shows the F-diagram obtained when water
flowed through a bed of ~]in. Raschig rings (tube
diameter 4.8 cm; L = 140 cm; fractional free volume
:20(1
0.62; volumetric flow-rate 4.5 cm3/s). The curve cal- The follow-up liquid will thus first appear at the
culated from eq. (19) with O/Lu = 0.013 is compared exit of a pipe of length L after a time L/2a; after
with the experimental points and shown to agree well. a greater time, 0, the situation will be as shown in
The liquid running over the packing in an absorp- Fig. 10, with a core of follow-up liquid of diameter
tion tower is presumably subject to the same kind of 2Rx/1 - L/2aO at the exit. Allowing for the variation
mixing, although channelling may prevent eq. (15) of velocity from the centre to the edge of the core, the
from being very closely obeyed. The quantity V in this fraction of follow-up liquid in the stream leaving the
case is equal to the total liquid hold-up. pipe is seen to be
The effect of longitudinal mixing on the perfor-
mance of tubular reactors is discussed later. L/2~O __ ?,2
F(O) = ~ J o
F L O W IN PIPES
Hold-back will always arise when a true fluid flows = 1 -- L2/4ti 2 02, aO/L > ½
through a pipe. In the first place, there is a variation in (25)
velocity from the axis to the wall of the pipe, so that = l - V2/4v202, vO/V > ½.
the central "core" of fluid moves with a velocity
greater than the mean, while the fluid near the wall The resulting F-diagram is shown in Fig. 11. Its shape
lags behind. This effect will be most marked when is independent of the length and diameter of the pipe,
flow is laminar; in turbulent flow the velocity is more and of the viscosity and velocity of the fluid (provided
uniform across the pipe, and the hold-back is less, of course that flow is laminar). The hold-back is ¼.
although eddy-diffusion contributes to the longitudi- Bosworth [2] has calculated the effect of molecular
nal mixing. In some circumstances molecular diffusion on systems of this kind [his F, is equivalent
diffusion may also contribute appreciably to the hold- to the present author's E(0)]. He shows that it can
back. It will be convenient to discuss laminar and be ignored providing the following conditions are
turbulent flow separately. fulfilled:
When viscous liquids such as heavy petroleum oil R > 13~/ti
or rayon dope are pumped through pipes, the flow
may be laminar. If the flow is changed, say, from one L > 6.5 × 104 D,,/~
Continuous flow systems 3863
I
F
0.$
/ t.$
~a/'V - - - - "
Fig. 1i. F-diagram for viscous flow in pipe.
where
O.04t
1 2vO[-i n -~+-~fln
= --~L( - - f i n - - f l / 2 ) n _ 1 + +
× ~ - ~ ( 2 , + 1 ) 5-2-2-i+~-22--i
Fig. 13. Experimental (A) and calculated (B) values of
fl = (n -- 1)2R/0.32 nL (v/V)(Oo.s - 0o.2). R/L = 6.3 x 10-*.
vessel is where
4a
1 -f= 1 (34)
(1 + a)2exp( - u L / 2 D ) ( I - a) - (1 - a) 2 exp( - uL/2D)(1 + a)"
1 -f=
f01oi - e k°)dF(O)
1 -f= 1 - exp--
- kL
t/
(35)
c exp
(u )I2'l+a'exp'uaJ2°"L
×
'2'la exp'uaJ2°"
2 L' (33)
Continuous flow systems 3865
varying composition. In the vessel, elements of mater- (the numerator being averaged with respect to t') is
ial which have entered at different times are mixed, so known as the autocorrelation coefficient or serial cor-
that the outflowing stream shows less variation in relation coefficient of ci for a time-interval r. Substitu-
composition than the input. The case of a perfectly ting eq. (45) in eq. (44) we have
mixed blender has been considered in detail elsewhere
1,4-1, with special reference to the flow of town gas #~/a] R(r)E(O)E(O + r)dOdr. (46)
through a gas-holder, and consequent smoothing-out jo=oJ,=O
of fluctuations in the calorific value. Beaudry I-1] has R(r) may be found as a function of r from a represen-
considered the special case of a perfectly mixed blen- tative record of ci vs t in various ways which have
der with a feed consisting of batches of material of been discussed elsewhere 1,4]. [The relationship be-
finite volume. A blender which displays segregation tween R(r) and r indicates whether the fluctuations in
will be less effective in reducing fluctuations than one ci are on the whole rapid or slow, and whether they
in which perfect mixing occurs. display any regular periodicity.] Assuming that R(r) is
Suppose the concentration of some component in known for a sufficient range of values of r, in order to
the entering stream has a concentration c~ which fluc- evaluate the integral into eq. (46) it is necessary to
tuates with time. Its value at any time is (6 + fit), where know E(O) as a function of 0. The necessary informa-
6 is the mean value of c~ which is assumed to show no tion is contained in the F-diagram of the system, and
trend. A convenient measure of magnitude of the the following is perhaps the simplest way of doing the
fluctuations in c~ is its standard deviation #~: calculation. First fit some simple function of 0 (such as
a power-series) to the F-diagram up to a value 01, at
cr~ = ,~. (38)
which F(O0 is very close to 1. Differentiate this func-
#i is assumed to show no trend. The concentration tion with respect to 0. From eq. (3) we see that
Co = (6 + 6c) of the outgoing stream has a standard dF(0)
deviation #o- The problem is to find the ratio ao/ai. - E(O) (47)
d0
The rates of inflow and outflow are assumed constant
and equal to v. The concentration Co(t) in the outflow so that E(O) is now a known function of 0. For a given
at time t is then given by value of 0, E(O + r) is the value obtained by replacing
0 by (0 + r). It will now be possible to evaluate the
Co(t) = c,{t -- O} E(O) dO (39) integral
do=o