Time-series analysis approach for the identification of flooding/loading transition in gas-liquid stirred tank reactors

This work provides a simple method for the objective, quantitative and non- intrusive detection of flooding/loading transition in gas/liquid systems in agitated vessels starting from the time-series analysis of conductance flu ctuations along a generic cross section of the vessel. The conductance prob e is designed in order to introduce minimal perturbations of the how field within the vessel. A thorough statistical characterization of the time seri es collected by the probe provides deeper insight into the fluid dynamics o f gas-liquid systems in stirred vessels as well as a simple, objective way to detect flooding/loading transitions. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.