Elucidation of polyurethane dispersions in a batch rotor-stator mixer

In this study, the effect of high energy input from mechanical agitation, provided with a high shear rotor-stator, on the drop size and the drop size distribution (DSD) of aqueous polyurethane (PU) dispersions is investigated. The effect of the dispersed phase volume fraction (ϕ) on the DSD of aqueous PU dispersions is also examined to understand the fundamental characteristics that result from the high shear mixing. DSD is measured by using either a high magnification video probe or dynamic light scattering, depending on the range of drop sizes. For the PU without any ionic content, the distributions appear to be bimodal with rather large drop sizes. The mean sizes of the first and second modes are about 10 and 22 μm, respectively. For the PU with an ionic content, the mean drop sizes are approximately 80 nm. The distributions reveal that functional chemistry plays a more dominant role in the process of making PU dispersions than the mechanical agitation, and that ϕ has a weak effect on the mean drop sizes. The results further suggest that mechanical agitation can be used to control the breadth of the distributions.     

Measurements and analysis of oxygen bubble distributions in LiCl–KCl molten salt

Transparent system experimental studies have been performed to provide measurement and analysis of oxygen bubble distributions at different sparging rates in LiCl–KCl molten salt at 500 °C using a high-speed digital camera and an oxygen sensor. The results reveal that bubble sizes and rise velocities increased with an increase in oxygen sparging rate. The bubbles observed were ellipsoidal in shape, and an equivalent diameter based on the ellipsoid volume was calculated, ranging from 0.00263 m to 0.00407 m. Results also show that the bubble equivalent diameters are normally distributed. A Fanning friction factor correlation was used to predict a bubble's rise velocity. The oxygen mass transfer coefficients were calculated using the oxygenation model; these values were on the order of 10⁻⁴ m/s and followed a decreasing trend corresponding to an increasing bubble size and sparging rate. The diffusivities were calculated based on two different approaches—one based on physics of the bubbles and the other on systematic properties. The diffusivity values calculated from bubble physics are 1.65 × 10⁻⁹ m²/s to 8.40 × 10⁻⁹ m²/s, which are within the range suggested by literature for gases in liquids of a similar viscosity.     

Uncertainty studies of real anode surface area in computational analysis for molten salt electrorefining

This study examines how much cell potential changes with five differently assumed real anode surface area cases. Determining real anode surface area is a significant issue to be resolved for precisely modeling molten salt electrorefining. Based on a three-dimensional electrorefining model, calculated cell potentials compare with an experimental cell potential variation over 80 h of operation of the Mark-IV electrorefiner with driver fuel from the Experimental Breeder Reactor II. We succeeded to achieve a good agreement with an overall trend of the experimental data with appropriate selection of a mode for real anode surface area, but there are still local inconsistencies between theoretical calculation and experimental observation. In addition, the results were validated and compared with two-dimensional results to identify possible uncertainty factors that had to be further considered in a computational electrorefining analysis. These uncertainty factors include material properties, heterogeneous material distribution, surface roughness, and current efficiency. Zirconium’s abundance and complex behavior have more impact on uncertainty towards the latter period of electrorefining at given batch of fuel. The benchmark results found that anode materials would be dissolved from both axial and radial directions at least for low burn-up metallic fuels after active liquid sodium bonding was dissolved.