Abstract
This paper presents a residence time distribution (RTD) measurement method using a radioisotope tracer and the estimation method of RTD model parameters to analyze a submerged bio-reactor. The mathematical RTD models have been investigated to represent the flow behavior and the existence of stagnant regions in the reactor. Knowing the parameters of the RTD model is important for understanding the mixing characteristics of a reactor The radioisotope tracer experiment was carried out by injecting a radioisotope tracer as a pulse into the inlet of the reactor and recording the change of its concentration at the outlet of the reactor to obtain the experimental RTD response. The parameter estimation was performed by the Levenberg-Marquardt optimization algorithm. The proposed scheme allowed the parameter estimation of RTD model suggested by Adler-Hovorka with very low deviations. The estimation procedure is shown to lead to accurate estimation of the RTD parameters and to a good agreement between experimental and simulated response.