Study of Freezing in Taylor-Couette Device
This research project involved desalinating water-utilizing principles of the Taylor- Couette flow. The entire process occurred in a Freeze Distillation Device (FDD) and the setup consists of a rotating inner cylinder and a stationary coaxial outer cylinder; in addition, a coolant bath circulator is included as the freezing component. The outcome provided a centrifugal instability resulting from the rotation of the inner cylinder. Theoretically, during the process, the device developed and maintained a helical laminar flow pattern, which is critical and preferred instead of a turbulent flow pattern. The results that were gathered by utilizing six 2.0 (ml) of frozen and unfrozen discharge samples that were analyzed for salinity using a commercial measuring instruments (Osmette A). This precision instrument collected the freeze point depression (concentration) of each sample in milliosmoles (mOsm) with an accuracy of ± 2 mOsm. Similarly, the FDD was monitored constantly for its performance under the specified parameters. This was important because the thermal conductivity as well as forced convection problems that are extremely significant. The over all objective was to quantify the rate at which freezing occurs in the system, as well as the amount of brine entrainment in the ice. The data acquisition process was done systematically and analyzed. As expected, the FDD demonstrated promising capabilities in freezing arena, showcasing its ability to entrain significantly less ice in the frozen samples than the unfrozen. In addition, producing a fundamental limit of brine entrainment in the ice at -0.1°C to -0.6°C. Furthermore, the research outcome successfully verifies the effectiveness of the desalination process.
School:
Clark Atlanta University
Department:
Mechanical Engineering
Research Advisor:
John Georgiadis
Department of Research Advisor:
Principal Investigator
Year of Publication:
2004