Issues related to flooding in distillation columns
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How does bubble entrainment cause flooding?
This post was last edited by gyf1017 on 2017-1-8 at 16:53; I misread it
Isn’t bubble entrainment gas backmixing? The gas in the upper layer is carried down to the lower layer by the liquid through the downcomer – so how can flooding occur?
The liquid flows horizontally across the tray; after coming into contact with the gas, it flows down to the lower tray through the downcomer. When the liquid flows into the downcomer, it often contains a large number of bubbles. It stays in the downcomer long enough for the foam to separate into gas and clear liquid, with the gas rising back to the upper tray. If the liquid load increases, the flow velocity of the liquid in the downcomer rises and its residence time becomes very short; as a result, the bubbles contained within the liquid do not have enough time to separate before being carried to the next tray. This phenomenon is known as \"bubble entrainment\"”
The hazard is that it reduces the flow capacity of the downcomer, thereby leading to flooding
Vapor-liquid entrainment will cause flooding of the tower, right?
This indicates that the liquid load in the tower is too high, and in severe cases it can lead to tower flooding