Visual Study of Liquid Flow in a Spinning Disk Reactor with a Hydrophobic Surface

A spinning disk reactor (SDR) is one of the important process intensification devices. Previous studies primarily focused on the dependence of the liquid flow in a SDR on the operational conditions and liquid properties. However, the effect of hydrophobicity of the disk's surface on the liquid flow in a SDR is rarely reported. In this work, the disk with a hydrophobic surface was prepared, and the effects of surface hydrophobicity, liquid flow rate, rotational speed, and liquid viscosity on the liquid flow patterns as well as the average diameter of a liquid droplet (davg) were investigated by a visualization method. An empirical correlation of davg was suggested, and the deviations were within ±15% when the calculated values of davg were compared with the experimental data.