Simulation of drop formation in a single hole in solvent extraction using the volume-of-fluid method

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were performed to investigate drop formation in single holes in solvent extraction. The effects of various operating and design parameters were investigated in order to optimize the drop formation. The obtained results show that CFD simulations can give useful information about drop formation in sieve plates. The numerical results indicated different drop formation periods. These periods were different for the straight and conical holes. Furthermore, it was shown that the shape of the hole has considerable effect on the size of the drops formed. The simulation results were verified by comparison with experimental observations obtained using high-speed video technology. The numerical results for the drop sizes, shapes and formation times were found to be consistent with images of experimental drops across a wide range of solvent volumetric flow rates.