Abstract:
To study the application of elastic materials as the diffused-air aerator in term of physical, bubble hydrodynamic and oxygen transfer parameters. Thus, the durability, elasticity and pressure drop (∆P) were analyzed and the bubble size (D[subscript B]), bubble formation frequency (f[subscript B]), bubble rising velocity (U[subscript B]) and interfacial area (a) were considered as the hydrodynamic parameters. Moreover, the mass transfer coefficients (K[subscript L]a and K[subscript L]) and oxygen transfer efficiency (OTE) were determined. The small bubble column used in this work was 0.4*0.4*0.3 m in dimension. In order to analyze the effect of different gas diffuser design factors, the synthetic used rubber (Michelin and Bridgestone types) and natural rubber with 60 mm in diameter were studied with different types of hole diameter (D[subscript OR]), orifice number (N[subscript OR]) and distance between orifice (∆D[subscript O]). The results have shown that the durability and elasticity obtained with the natural rubber were lesser than those obtained with the other one, whereas higher ∆P value was observed. The Michelin rubber with one medium-orifice size can provide the small bubble size and thus high values of a and K[subscript L]a coefficients with low associated ∆P values. Moreover, the suitable ∆D[subscript O] values obtained was 4 mm corresponding with the generated bubble size: these results can be applied to define the optimal design for studying the multi-orifices diffuser. The orifice number, gas flow rate and liquid volume can affect the OTE value: the maximum value was 6.3%. Finally, the mathematic equations for calculating the values of D[subscript B], U[subscript B] and K[subscript L] can be used for predicting the K[subscript L]a coefficients with 30% error. This can facilitate the difficult experiment and time for easily comparing the K[subscript L]a from whatever the gas diffuser.