Enrichment of Heavy Water by Thermal Diffusion in the Frazier Schemes with Column Heights Varied at a Constant Increment for Improved Performance

Abstract

The improvement of heavy water enrichment by thermal diffusion in the Frazier scheme with column heights varied at a constant increment and with the total sum of column heights fixed, has been investigated. The equations, which may be employed to predict the optimal column number and the optimal column-height increment for maximum separation, have been derived. Considerable improvement in heavy water enrichment is obtainable if the column number and column-height increment in a modified Frazier scheme with the total sum of column heights fixed, are property assigned under certain flow-rate operation, instead of using the conventional scheme of uniform column height.

Keywords:

• heavy water enrichment
• thermal diffusion
• modified Frazier scheme
• increasing column heights