A NUMERICAL-SOLUTION FOR THE DISPERSION IN LAMINAR-FLOW THROUGH A CIRCULAR TUBE

A numerical solution based on the method proposed by Bailey and Gogarty was developed to describe the solute dispersion in laminar flow through a straight tube of circular cross section. Many studies have been carried out since Taylor (1953) first presented a partial differential equation to describe the problem. The advantages of the present numerical solution are that it involves less numerical computation than others and can give very accurate results. It is also convenient to use because of its simplicity. The results obtained by this solution are in excellent agreement with those of Yu's solution, which is considered to be the most satisfactory approximation among the previous studies. The numerical solution also agrees very well with the experimental results for a finite slug of dye solution dispersed into water in laminar tube flow. A method was developed to check the computing error by means of a mass balance on the solute. Copyright © 1990 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering