THE PROPER COLUMN NUMBER FOR BEST PERFORMANCE IN THERMAL DIFFUSION COLUMNS OF THE FRAZIER SCHEME WITH TOTAL SUM OF COLUMN HEIGHT FIXED

The effect of column number on the Frazier scheme performances with total sum of column heights fixed has been investigated. The equations that may be employed to predict the optimal number of columns (generally not integers) for the maximum performance are derived. Accordingly, the proper number of columns, which are the integers nearest to and smaller than the optimal column numbers, are obtained for practical applications. Considerable improvement in performance is obtainable if the scheme is constructed with the proper number of thermal diffusion columns, instead of using a single column, with the same total sum of column heights.