Characterizing a tubular polymerization reactor by washout initiator perturbation

The fluid dynamics of three styrene tubular polymerization reactors were analyzed theoretically and experimentally through washout perturbation. The analysis was developed through initiator negative step inputs and monomer conversion outputs, and thus additional analytic methods were not necessary as no tracer was used. The results were evaluated by an axial-dispersion model and a system of partial differential equations was obtained. This system was reduced by orthogonal collocation into a new system of differential algebraic equations, and these were numerically integrated over time by DASSL. The model parameter - Peclet number - and mean residence time were estimated by fitting the experimental data to the simulation. As these values were correlated, a maximum-likelihood procedure was carried out to estimate the values. Qualitative conclusions were obtained and different fluid dynamic patterns were observed.