Size distribution measurement of packed tower drift based on hydrophobic materials

Droplet size distribution of packed tower drift is of great significance in selecting drift eliminators. A sizing procedure based on hydrophobic material sampling and image processing is presented. Hydrophobic materials with great adhesiveness whose contact angle is 129.5° and rolling angle is greater than 90°, are prepared by liquid-phase oxidation based on an aluminum alloy. The drop shape and diameter are figured out by the process of hydrophobic materials sampling, imaging and least square fitting of ellipses. The experiment demonstrates that the error of diameter is less than 3%, in which the drop diameters are 0-3850 µm. Size distribution of packed tower drift is carried out, the results show that packed tower drift have a distribution of 0-1000 µm and packed tower with inertia drift eliminators can get rid of droplets bigger than 200 µm.