centrifuge
DESCRIPTION
CENTRIFUGETRANSCRIPT
This week we are launching Wikivoyage . Join us in creating a free travel guide that anyone can edit.
CentrifugeFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search This article is about the scientific device. For the Christian camp, see Centrifuge (camps). For spin direction in quantum mechanics, see Spin (physics)#Spin direction.
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2009)
A laboratory tabletop centrifuge. The rotating unit, called the rotor, has fixed holes drilled at an angle (to the vertical). Test tubes are placed in these slots and the motor is spun. As the centrifugal force is in the horizontal plane and the tubes are fixed at an angle, the particles have to travel only a little distance before they hit the wall and drop down to the bottom. These angle rotors are very popular in the lab for routine use.
A centrifuge is a piece of equipment, generally driven by an electric motor (some older models were spun by hand), that puts an object in rotation around a fixed axis, applying a force perpendicular to the axis. The centrifuge works using the sedimentation principle, where the centripetal acceleration causes denser substances to separate out along the radial direction (the bottom of the tube). By the same token lighter objects will tend to move to the top (of the tube; in the rotating picture, move to the centre).
Contents 1 Theory 2 History and predecessors 3 Types
4 Uses o 4.1 Isolating suspensions o 4.2 Isotope separation o 4.3 Aeronautics and astronautics o 4.4 Geotechnical Centrifuge Modeling o 4.5 Commercial applications
5 References and notes 6 Further reading 7 See also 8 External links
TheoryProtocols for centrifugation typically specify the amount of acceleration to be applied to the sample, rather than specifying a rotational speed such as revolutions per minute. This distinction is important because two rotors with different diameters running at the same rotational speed will subject samples to different accelerations. During circular motion the acceleration is the product of the radius and the square of the angular velocity , and the acceleration relative to "g" is traditionally named "relative centrifugal force" (RCF). The acceleration is measured in multiples of "g" (or × "g"), the standard acceleration due to gravity at the Earth's surface, a dimensionless quantity given by the expression:
A 19th-century hand cranked laboratory centrifuge.
where
is earth's gravitational acceleration,is the rotational radius,is the angular velocity in radians per unit time
This relationship may be written as
where
is the rotational radius measured in centimetres (cm), andis rotational speed measured in revolutions per minute (RPM).
History and predecessors
Early 20th century advertising poster for a milk separator.
English military engineer Benjamin Robins (1707–1751) invented a whirling arm apparatus to determine drag. In 1864, Antonin Prandtl invented the first dairy centrifuge in order to separate cream from milk. In first continuous centrifugal separator, making its commercial application feasible.
TypesThere are multiple types of centrifuge, which can be classified by intended use or by rotor design:
Types by rotor design: [1][2][3][4]
Fixed-angle centrifuges are designed to hold the sample containers at a constant angle relative to the central axis.
Swinging head (or swinging bucket) centrifuges, in contrast to fixed-angle centrifuges, have a hinge where the sample containers are attached to the central rotor. This allows the samples to swing outwards as the centrifuge is spun.
Continuous tubular centrifuges don't have individual sample vessels and are used for high volume applications.
Types by intended use:
Ultracentrifuges are optimized for spinning a rotor at very high speeds and are popular in the fields of molecular biology, biochemistry and polymer science. This type may include preparative or analytical, fixed-angle or swing head varieties.[3]
Haematocrit centrifuges are used to measure the percentage of red blood cells in whole blood.
Gas centrifuges , including Zippe-type centrifuges
Industrial centrifuges may otherwise be classified according to the type of separation of the high density fraction from the low density one:
Screen centrifuges, where the centrifugal acceleration allows the liquid to pass through a screen of some sort, through which the solids cannot go (due to granulometry larger than the screen gap or due to agglomeration). Common types are:
o Screen/scroll centrifugeso Pusher centrifugeso Peeler centrifugeso Decanter centrifuges, in which there is no physical separation between the
solid and liquid phase, rather an accelerated settling due to centrifugal acceleration.
o Continuous liquid; common types are: Solid bowl centrifuges Conical plate centrifuges
Uses
Isolating suspensions
Main article: Laboratory centrifuge
Simple centrifuges are used in chemistry, biology, and biochemistry for isolating and separating suspensions. They vary widely in speed and capacity. They usually comprise a rotor containing two, four, six, or many more numbered wells within which the samples, contained in centrifuge tubes, may be placed.
Isotope separation
Main article: Gas centrifuge
Other centrifuges, the first being the Zippe-type centrifuge, separate isotopes, and these kinds of centrifuges are in use in nuclear power and nuclear weapon programs.
Gas centrifuges are used in uranium enrichment. The heavier isotope of uranium (uranium-238) in the uranium hexafluoride gas tends to concentrate at the walls of the centrifuge as it spins, while the desired uranium-235 isotope is extracted and concentrated with a scoop selectively placed inside the centrifuge.[citation needed] It takes many thousands of centrifugations
to enrich uranium enough for use in a nuclear reactor (around 3.5% enrichment),[citation needed] and many thousands more to enrich it to weapons-grade (above 90% enrichment) for use in nuclear weapons.[citation needed]
Aeronautics and astronautics
Main article: High-G training
The 20 G centrifuge at the NASA Ames Research Center
Human centrifuges are exceptionally large centrifuges that test the reactions and tolerance of pilots and astronauts to acceleration above those experienced in the Earth's gravity.
The US Air Force at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico operates a human centrifuge. The centrifuge at Holloman AFB is operated by the aerospace physiology department for the purpose of training and evaluating prospective fighter pilots for high-g flight in Air Force fighter aircraft.[5]
The use of large centrifuges to simulate a feeling of gravity has been proposed for future long-duration space missions. Exposure to this simulated gravity would prevent or reduce the bone decalcification and muscle atrophy that affect individuals exposed to long periods of freefall. [5] [6]
Geotechnical Centrifuge Modeling
Geotechnical centrifuge modeling is used for physical testing of models involving soils. Centrifuge acceleration is applied to scale models to scale the gravitational acceleration and enable prototype scale stresses to be obtained in scale models. Problems such as building and bridge foundations, earth dams, tunnels, and slope stability, including effects such as blast loading and earthquake shaking.[7]
Commercial applications
Centrifuges with a batch weight of up to 2,200 kg per charge are used in the sugar industry to separate the sugar crystals from the mother liquor.[8]
Standalone centrifuges for drying (hand-washed) clothes – usually with a water outlet. Centrifuges are used in the attraction Mission: SPACE, located at Epcot in Walt
Disney World, which propels riders using a combination of a centrifuge and a motion simulator to simulate the feeling of going into space.
In soil mechanics, centrifuges utilize centrifugal acceleration to match soil stresses in a scale model to those found in reality.
Large industrial centrifuges are commonly used in water and wastewater treatment to dry sludges. The resulting dry product is often termed cake, and the water leaving a centrifuge after most of the solids have been removed is called centrate.
Large industrial centrifuges are also used in the oil industry to remove solids from the drilling fluid.
Disc-stack centrifuges used by some companies in Oil Sands industry to separate small amounts of water and solids from bitumen
Centrifuges are used to separate cream (remove fat) from milk.
References and notes1. ̂ "Basics of Centrifugation". Cole-Parmer. Retrieved 11 March 2012.2. ̂ "Plasmid DNA Separation: Fixed-Angle and Vertical Rotors in the Thermo
Scientific Sorvall Discovery™ M120 & M150 Microultracentrifuges" (Thermo Fischer publication)
3. ^ a b http://uqu.edu.sa/files2/tiny_mce/plugins/filemanager/files/4250119/lectures/1._instr.pdf
4. ̂ Heidcamp, Dr. William H.. "Appendix F". Cell Biology Laboratory Manual. Gustavus Adolphus College,. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
5. ^ a b "The Pull of HyperGravity - A NASA researcher is studying the strange effects of artificial gravity on humans.". NASA. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
6. ̂ Hsu, Jeremy. "New Artificial Gravity Tests in Space Could Help Astronauts". Space.com. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
7. ̂ C. W. W. Ng, Y. H. Wang, L. M. Zhang (2006). Physical Modelling in Geotechnics: proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics. Taylor & Francis. p. 135. ISBN 0-415-41586-1.
8. ̂ article on centrifugal controls, retrieved on June 5, 2010
Further readingNaesgaard et al. , Modeling flow liquefaction, its mitigation, and comparison with centrifuge tests
See also Lamm equation Sedimentation Centrifugal force Centrifugation Gas centrifuge Sedimentation coefficient Clearing factor Hydroextractor
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Centrifuges
Look up centrifuge in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
RCF Calculator and Nomograph RPI centrifuge video OGEM LXJ Drilling Mud Centrifuge Centrifugation Rotor Calculator Lab Centrifuge Resource Center Selection of historical centrifuges in the Virtual Laboratory of the Max Planck
Institute for the History of Science
View page ratingsRate this pageWhat's this?TrustworthyObjectiveCompleteWell-written
I am highly knowledgeable about this topic (optional) Categories:
Centrifuges
Navigation menu Create account Log in
Article Talk
Read Edit View history
Main page Contents Featured content Current events Random article Donate to Wikipedia
Interaction
Help About Wikipedia
Community portal Recent changes Contact Wikipedia
Toolbox
Print/export
Languages
العربية Català Česky Dansk Deutsch Eesti Español Esperanto فارسی Français 한국어 Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית Қазақша Nederlands Norsk (bokmål) Polski Русский Simple English Suomi Svenska తెలుగు ไทย Türkçe Українська اردو 中文
This page was last modified on 15 January 2013 at 15:19. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;
additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Contact us
Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers
