nancylebov (nancylebov) wrote,
nancylebov
nancylebov

Temperature and particles settling out

I was thinking about what effect temperature would have on how long it takes particles to settle out of a liquid, and came up with three guesses.

One is that higher temperatures would make particles take longer because heat would keep the liquid stirred up. Another is that heat would cause settling to happen faster because heat makes everything happen faster. Ok, that's probably not quite true, but a very cold and sticky mix wouldn't let the particles move down very fast.

I'm betting on number three-- this is actually something very complicated, and it's why industrial processes need engineers using approximations to figure out what's likely to happen. In particular, it wouldn't surprise me if there's a temperature range for fastest settling of particular combinations of particles and liquids, and the behavior of the particles will be affected by their size and shape, not just their chemical composition.

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  • 3 comments
kgbooklog

kgbooklog

March 24 2015, 19:38:50 UTC 9 years ago

Higher temperatures will increase how many of the particles will dissolve in the liquid. (IIRC)
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wcg

wcg

March 24 2015, 20:34:50 UTC 9 years ago

The answer is, "it depends." It depends on the liquid, and on the particles. As a general rule of thumb, any solid particles in suspension will settle out of a liquid as it is cooled, but as with any general rule, there are lots of exceptions.

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elenbarathi

elenbarathi

March 25 2015, 04:16:39 UTC 9 years ago

What wcg said. Is the material to be precipitated dissolved, like sugar in water, or is it suspended, like ash in oil? The sugar will precipitate out of the water as it cools, forming rock candy. The ash will precipitate out of the oil as it heats up and the viscosity of the oil decreases.
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