Finite pointset method for simulation of the liquid–liquid flow field in an extractor

Finite pointset method (FPM) is applied for the simulation of the single- and two-phase flow field in a rotating disc contactor (RDC) type extraction column. FPM is a numerical method to solve fluid dynamic equations. This is a Lagrangian and meshfree particle method, where the particles move with fluid velocity and carry all information necessary for solving fluid dynamic quantities. The simulations are validated by single- and two-phase 2D particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements. In addition, the results are compared to simulations of the commercial CFD code Fluent. The results show that FPM can predict the one- and two-phase flow field in the RDC, whereas the predicted velocities are in good agreement with the experimental ones. FPM also bears comparison with the results of the commercial CFD code Fluent.