Hydraulic Performance of an Annular Pulsed Disc-and-Doughnut Column

The annular pulsed disc-and-doughnut column (APDDC) is an important type of solvent-extraction equipment used in the PUREX process. Though it has been used in several commercial reprocessing plants in the world, there are few research results reported in the literature. In the present work, experiments were carried out in a stainless steel annular pulsed disc-and-doughnut column with aqueous phase and organic phase as the continuous fluid separately. The air-purge method was used to measure parameters including the two-phase densities, column weight, and two-phase interface location, which were fed back to a computer for column control. The holdup and Sauter drop diameter, the latter of which was calculated based on the gravitational settling model, are correlated as functions of the operating conditions (such as pulsation intensity, total flux, and flow ratio). Flooding holdup and throughput were determined experimentally and found in good agreement with those predicted by the model of the Sauter drop diameter. Based on the experimental data, operating regimes are divided referring to existing models. In addition, the effects of internal wettability on the hydraulic characteristics are also discussed.