Identifier

etd-03252015-125953

Degree

Master of Science in Chemical Engineering (MSChE)

Department

Chemical Engineering

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Since its emergence in 1970s, process intensification has been attracting extensive research interests from both academic and industrial societies over the years. One good example of process intensification in chemical industry is the optimization of flow distributors. In many chemical processes, the uniformity of flow distributions plays the key role in determining the overall efficiency. Conventional distributors rely on high pressure drop to achieve acceptable flow distribution. With scaling symmetry from fractal, fractal distributors can handle fluid distribution much better than conventional distributors. With the rapid development of computation power and numerical simulation algorithms, Computer Fluid Dynamics (CFD) provides us a better understanding of physics in chemical industries. This thesis is seeking to achieve process intensification by designing a novel ion-exchanger with fractal distributor. Residence time distribution test has been conducted to study the design of fractal distributor. CFD simulations help to gain insights on fluid flow inside the device and offers optimization on fractal distributor for flow distribution uniformity. Coefficient of Variation has been used to estimate distributor performance.

Date

2015

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Student has submitted appropriate documentation to restrict access to LSU for 365 days after which the document will be released for worldwide access.

Committee Chair

Nandakumar, Krishnaswamy

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.293

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