Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1952, Vol. 10, pp. 281 to 284. Pergsmon Press Ltd. London
PEARSON
Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd., Akers Research Laboratories, The Frythe, Welwyn, Herts.
Abstract-A
mathematical justification is given for the use of the Danckwerts boundary
conditions for continuous flow reactors. It is shown that the apparent indeterminacy, which
DANCE~ERTS
resolves intuitively, is caused by the use of a discontinuous coefficient of diffusion.
By treating this as the limit of a cont~uous fusion and imposing eont~uity of the reactant
concentration as the physically relevant boundary condition, the Danekwerts solution is obtained
in the limit.
RBsum&--Lauteur donne une justification mathematiques des conditions aux limites utilisees
par DANCKWERTS
dans le cas dun reaeteur a Bcoulementcontinu. I1 montre que lindttermination
apparente resolue ~t~tivement par D~~cxwmzrs est inherente it un coefficient de fusion
discontinu. I1 con&d&e ce coefficient comme la limite dune fonction continue et il impose une
continuite a la concentration du reactant comme &ant la condition limite physiquement correcte :
la solution de DANCKWERTSest alors obtenue a la limite,
Zusammenfassnng-Die
G~~be~n~ngen
nach DANCKWERTS fur den kon~uierlich durchstr6mten Reaktor werden mathematisch gerechtfertigt. Die anscheinende Unbestimmtheit, die
DANCKWERTS
intuitiv aufltist, ist durch die Verwendung eines diskontinuierlichen Diffusionskoeffizienten verursacht. Bebandelt man diesen als Grenzfall einer kontinuierlichen Funktion
und setzt die Stetigkeit der Konzentration des Reaktanten als die physikalisch entscheidende
Grenzbedingung fest, so erhalt man die DANCKWERTS-L~SIJNC
im Grenzfall.
1.
INTRODUCTION
= 0-t.
(1)
D .
dc
qj
= 0,
(2)
y = L.
J. R. A. PEARSON
DANCKWERTS paper, appears to rely for its
uniqueness on the acceptance of an intuitive
boundary condition. If only because this boundary condition has not been universally accepted,
it seems desirable to investigate a little more
closely the formal. mathematical implications of
the idealization represented by equation (1) and
the boundary conditions (2) and (3).
First of all, we observe that in the general
solution to (l), using boundary condition (2) at
y = 0 and a similar condition at y = L, a discontinuity in c, at either y = 0 or y = L, or both, is
necessarily consequent upon the imposed discontinuities in D. Within the reactor, i.e. where
0 < y < L, we naturally consider only continuous
solutions for c. This we do for sound physical
reasons, but not for mathematical ones, for it
may easily be verified that solutions exist for c
that are discontinuous within the region 0 < y < L.
This suggests, as a next step, that we should
eliminate, if possible, the discontinuity in D, and
seek solutions for c that are continuous everphere,
and are therefore physically acceptable. We may
do this in a variety of ways. In the following
section, we shall deliberately choose a form for
D, the diffusion coefficient, which is continuous
everywhere and which, by means of an obvious
limiting process, may be made to approach as
closely as we please to the top hat distribution
of DANCKWERTS. It will be shown that a unique
solution for c is in fact obtained without resort
to intuition, and that this solution tends, in the
limit, to the solution obtained by DANCKWERTS.
In other words the apparently intuitive boundary
condition (3) becomes the inevitable result of the
limiting process applied to the continuous
solution.
2.
(4.i)
(ii)
D = D,
(4.ii)
(4.iii)
\
L
D, as a function of yS
(5)
y.~+(1-&)~--&
c1 = 0, (6.i)
0
(ii)
(iii)
'2
- E$
c2 =
(6.ii)
0,
z.~-+il+&~-&oca=O,
(&iii)
z=L-y,
(7)
dc
dc
c2 = cl, -2 = -1
dY
dY.
=
c2,
at y = 0,
c*
h2
-
dY
D=AD,y
/A
Y-
c&.
(i)
I
L-I/A
MATHEMATICALTREATMENT
(iii)
h-dz
at y = l/A,
.
(8)
aty=L
-(l/A),
(s = l/A),
232
that is bounded
e2=e,,exp[~(l+1/1+u~kDo)]+
At z = 0, cs(]) = d,.
(1-J]],
+ c22exp [g
cp
tg)
= do (1 + (k/AD,
At z = l/A,
y
+ U) z + 0 (z) . . . .)
(14)
cQ(l) = do + o (l/P),
= (kd,/AD,
+ u) + 0 (l//P).
r = 0 or go,
c1(l) (l/A)
but that
At y = 0, c$)
while dc,()
dz (l/A)
-+ c1() (0),
At y = l/A,
cp
cl(l) = a, + 0 (l/A*),
WAD,) + 0 (l/A),
= b, (l/A)
dCl(
dy
= A2_ u
Sf2= b, * ;
3.
+ 0 WA2)1
(l/A)@An)
+ 0 (l/A),
is small.
Similarly if we write
cs = 7! (do + a, z + . . . . . . d,z + . . . ),
and
substitute
into equation
s=O
DISCUSSION
since l/A
(13)
or -so,
J. R. A.
DANCKWERTS has done, in terms of different
boundary conditions to be applied at the entry
to or at the exit from a packed tubular reactor,
where the diffusion coefficient changes rapidly
from zero.
The same procedure can be adopted to obtain
relevant boundary conditions in more complicated
situations involving diffusion where there are
several reactants, and where temperature varies.
It can readily be shown that the boundary con-
PEARSON
284