Axial mass transport in liquid-liquid Taylor-Couette-Poiseuille flow

Axial mass transport in immiscible liquid-liquid Taylor-Couette-Poiseuille flow was studied by using standard tracer-response techniques. Experiments were carried out using mixtures of kerosene and water that produced two basic flow patterns (a banded structure and an apparently homogeneous emulsion). Effective axial dispersion coefficients were calculated for both the disperse and continuous phases for each Row pattern by fitting the tracer-response data to one of two simple stirred tanks in series models. A comparison of axial transport in the continuous and disperse phases supports the hypotheses that the homogeneous flow pattern behaves as if the emulsion is spatially homogeneous, and the banded flow pattern consists of a disperse phase confined to the cores of Taylor vortices. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.