An investigation of conservation of fluid oscillation in a continuous oscillatory baffled reactor

• Fluid displacements in a continuous oscillatory baffled reactor (COBR) were measured and verified experimentally, for the first time, for a single-phase application at various oscillation frequencies and amplitudes; • A model was built up to evaluate the fluid displacements using experimental measurements of displacement and pressure in the COBR; • The model evaluated displacements match well with the experimental measurements, achieving the theoretical validation for the first time ; • Further understanding between phase shift and work done has been achieved. Continuous oscillatory baffled reactors (COBRs) have been utilised in organic synthesis and crystallisation, however, no validation work has yet been conducted to determine if the fluid displacement caused by the oscillation at the start of the COBR is conserved at the end of the COBR. This work reports, for the first time , both experimental measurements and theoretical evaluations of the displacement. The experimental validation involves physically measuring the fluid displacement using a laser distance sensor located at the end of the COBR. Surprisingly, the measured displacement values at some operating conditions differ from the initial settings. The theoretical evaluation entails the determination of power dissipation across the COBR using the pressure measurements at four locations along the COBR. The model evaluated displacements agree well with the experimental measurements at all operational conditions, validating the methodologies used in this work.