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Monte Carlo Simulation of Coalescence Processes in Oil Sands Slurries
Author(s) -
Friesen Waldemar I.,
Dabros Tadeusz
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
the canadian journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1939-019X
pISSN - 0008-4034
DOI - 10.1002/cjce.5450820415
Subject(s) - asphalt , monte carlo method , coalescence (physics) , oil sands , drop (telecommunication) , slurry , mechanics , materials science , environmental science , mineralogy , petroleum engineering , geotechnical engineering , geology , composite material , engineering , physics , mathematics , statistics , telecommunications , astrobiology
Conditioning of an oil sand slurry is a critical step in the extraction of bitumen from oil sand ore. To model the conditioning process, a constant‐number Monte Carlo algorithm is used to simulate the mean‐field kinetics of coalescing bitumen drops and air bubbles. The coalescence rate of drops and bubbles is described by the model of Coulaloglou and Tavlarides (1977). Simulations yield results that are consistent with aerated bitumen drop sizes and conditioning times reported in the literature. The effects of turbulent energy, bitumen concentration, and initial bitumen drop size on the evolution of drop size distributions are investigated.