Chemiul Ex~gmeering

Science,
1968,Vol.9, pp. 78 to 79. Pergamon PressLtd.

Local residence-times in continuous-flow systems

P. V. DANCKWERTS
Imperial College of Science and Technology, London.

(Received 24 January 1958)

Summary-If a tracer is injected at the inlet of a continuous-flow system in the form of a step
or pulse signal, the course of the subsequent change in concentration at a point within the system,
can be used to determine quantitatively the average “ age ” as an indication of the degree
of stagnation of the material at this point.

R&rmB-L’injection d’un traceur, a l’alimentation d’un systeme en 6coulement continu,

sous la forme d’un signal discontinu ou d’un signal d’impulsion permet de determiner quantita-
tivement la vitesse de remplacement ou le degre de stagnation de la mat&e, en un point du
systeme, par suite des fluctuations de concentration en ce point.

Zusammenfassung-Wenn ein Indikator stossweise in den Eintritt eines kontinuierlichen

Stromungssystems injiziert wird, kann man den Verlauf der nacbfolgenden Konzentration-
siinderung an einem Punkt innerhalb des Systems zur quantitativen Bestimmung der Verdriin-
gungsgeschwindigkeit oder der Aufenthaltsdauer des Stoffes in diesem Punkt verwenden.

ELSEWHERE in this issue (p. 74), SPALDING shows material at the point of measurement could be
that if a pulse consisting of a quantity of tracer determined by evaluating graphically the integral
is injected at the inlet of 8 steady-state flow m
system at t = 0, then the quantity
00
c. at
8 = ;
s
0
ct. at.

.s In practice this may be hard to evaluate because

0
of uncertainties about the tail of the curve. For
(where c is the local concentration of tracer at many purposes the median age, 7, will be just
time t after injection) will have the same value as useful as an index of the local rate of replace-
at every point in the system. This suggests a ment. Half the material at the point has an age
method of determining the rate of replacement greater than r ; hence
or degree of stagnation of the material in different 7
parts of the system.
SPALDING'S proposition is discussed further in
the Appendix, where it is shown that the distribu- 0
s c.dt 2s
2v

tion of “ ages ” of the material in a volume-
element around the point at which c is measured
can be deduced from the variation of c with t.
(The “ age ” of a particle of material is the
time elapsed since it entered the system). The
fraction of the material having ages between
t, (t + dt) is (W/Q) . dt, where 2) is the rate .of
flow of material through the system, and Q the
quantity of tracer injected.
It follows that the average age, S, of the
The value of 7 is easily found by plotting c
against t until the area under the curve is equal
to Q/2v.
The same information can be obtained by
raising the concentration of tracer in the inlet
stream at t = 0 from zero to a steady value C.
The value of c/C at the point of measurement at
time t is then equal to the fraction of the material
having an age less than 1, and the median age
is equal to the value of t at which c/C reaches 4.

78
 Local residence-times
These techniques offer a quantitative method
of investigating rates of replacement of material
in various parts of a continuous-flow plant
(or of air in a room or water in a pond). For
instance, a contour map of median ages through-
out the plant might be made, and would show
up clearly dead spots and by-passing effects. In
general one would expect the median or average
ages near the inlet to approach zero, and their
values near the outlet to approach those for the
material in the whole stream leaving the system.
However, in stagnant pockets the age of the
material might be considerably greater than
that of the leaving stream, and channelling or
by-passing effects would be shown up as regions
where the age was relatively low.
APPENDIX
A quantity Q of tracer is injected into the inflowing
in continuous-flow systems
stream. If Q is llnite, the injection cannot be truly
instantaneous ; it will be assumed that it occurs at a
constant rate over a short time-interval 6 1. Let the
distribution function for the ages (0) of the particles of
material in the volume element, which contains a quantity
6 m of material be f (0). At any time t after injection the
age of the tracer will be between t, (1 + 6 t), and hence
the fraction of the material in the volume-element having
the same age as the tracer is f(t) . ii t. Since a quantity
u . 6 t entered the system with the pulse of tracer, and
therefore has the same age, the ratio of tracer to other
material entering during the pulse was Q/u . 6 t. Provided
therefore that tracer and other material migrate together,
the quantity of tracer in the specified volume-element
at time t is
and hence the ratio c, of tracer to the whole of the other
material in the volume element is given by
c = Q .f(t)/u.
79