Similarity and scaling in flow injection analysis

In this paper scaling laws and similarity conditions are applied to the pro blem of scaling the size of flow injection apparatus with reference to cont emporary research in miniaturisation of analytical instrumentation. Equatio ns are presented which define the similarity conditions for two flow inject ion (FI) analysis systems allowing systems to be scaled up or down with res pect to a reference flow injection analysis system. Novel partial similarit y coefficients with respect to the dispersion coefficient, residence time a nd dispersion factor are defined and a similarity coefficient based on the partial similarity coefficients is introduced to assess and compare the deg ree of similarity of two or more FI systems.