An experimental study of the hydraulic performance and oxygen desorp-tion efficiency of a vertical sieve tray and T-arrangement rectangular valve tray has been made with water-air system in a 300mm test tower and preliminary correlations were obtained between the tray pressure drop

leakage

entrainment

pressure drop of the gas passing through the liquid layer

and the clear liquid height in the downcomer. On the basis of analysing and comparing the data of the two types of trays with those of F1-type circular valve tray

it is found

under the same experimental conditions

that the fractionation efficiency and tray pressure drop of VST and RVT are approximately equal to those of F1-type circular valve tray but the operating range is much wider than that of the latter type.