THE EFFECT OF INLET WEEPING ON DISTILLATION TRAY EFFICIENCY

Evidence has accumulated in recent years that weeping from distillatio n trays can sometimes be severely non-uniformly distributed over the t ray. Numerical models which were developed previously for the effect o f non-uniform weeping on tray efficiency showed that weeping from the tray inlet causes a bigger reduction of efficiency than is caused by u niform weeping. It is often useful to be able to determine a worst-cas e for the effect of weeping on efficiency, The use of numerical models for this is cumbersome and inconvenient. We have therefore developed analytical results for the worst-case situation where all the weeping is concentrated at the liquid inlet. Solutions are provided for all th ree of the classical liquid and vapour flow combinations identified by Lewis in 1936.