The New Jersey Institute of Technology's
Electronic Theses & Dissertations Project

Title:	The settling of particles in a square contained medium
Author:	Matyas, Richard S.
View Online:	njit-etd1977-023 (vi, 34 pages ~ 1.9 MB pdf)
Department:	Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry
Degree:	Master of Science
Program:	Chemical Engineering
Document Type:	Thesis
Advisory Committee:	Bart, Ernest N. (Committee chair) McCormick, John E. (Committee member) Chen, Hung T. (Committee member)
Date:	1977-06
Keywords:	Dynamics of a particle Fluid dynamics
Availability:	Unrestricted
Abstract:	Stokes' Law, has been standardly utilized to calculate the terminal velocity of falling particles. However, the limitation of Stokes' Law is that it does not take into account the container walls and their resulting drag forces. Extensive work with additional drag due to cylindrical container walls has been examined by many investigators. The classical and earliest is the well know Ladenburg Correction which cannot be utilized with non-cylindrical containers. This experimental thesis examines the analog of the Ladenburg relationship for a square container. This experimental thesis was undertaken to experimentally determine the value of the constant K1 for a square contained medium. The theoretical relationships that were previously done utilized a calculated theoretical value of the constant K1 in the formula y=~K (1 - K1 x). In this series of experiments, measurements were taken on the weight, diameter and density of the spheres utilized. Temperature dependent properties of viscosity and density of the fluid medium were measured and plotted. Actual settling velocities of the spheres were measured along with fluid medium temperatures. Because of the differences in the sphere densities and temperature differences of the fluid medium each data point was considered independently. Each data point had its unique Stokes' settling velocity and this was taken into account during the calculations. The data points were plotted and computer analyzed for the constant value K1. This series of experiments has experimentally determined the value of the constant K1 to be 1.8932. This differs from the theoretically calculated K1 value of 1.903 by 0.51%. The plotted data points indicate increased scattering as the spheres become smaller. This appears to be directly related to the convection currents in the fluid medium.