Study on cavern evolution and performance of three mixers in agitation of yield-pseudoplastic fluids

The hydrodynamic performance of three mixers single shaft central mixer(SSC), single shaft off-centred mixer(SSO), dual shaft off-centred mixer(DSO), was investigated in the mixing of yield-pseudoplastic fluids(xanthan gum solutions) in the laminar regime. To explore and determine the efficiency of three mixers, both numerical and experimental approaches were adopted. The fluid rheology was described by the Herschel–Bulkley rheological model. Computational fluid dynamics was employed to simulate the apparent viscosity distribution, mixing time, and the flow pattern inside the stirred tank. The developed model was validated through experimentally measured torque. The influence mechanism of the rotational speed and fluid rheology on the cavern evolution was explored deeply. The performances of three mixers in this work were compared at the constant power input and fluid rheology with respect to the flow pattern, mixing time, and mixing efficiency. The results verify that the faster the rotating speed, the greater influence of the fluid rheology on the cavern evolution, and the more uniform apparent viscosity distribution. Moreover, the mixing time decreases continuously as the increasing power consumption per unit volume, and the dimensionless mixing time of DSO mixer was nearly 42.8% and 6.1% shorter than that of SSC and SCO mixer at the same Reynolds number, respectively. According to the mixing efficiency criteria, these data also revealed that DSO was more efficient than SSC and SSO.

Experimental study of power consumption, local characteristics distributions and homogenization energy in gas–liquid stirred tank reactors

In this paper, the power consumption, the vertical local void fraction and the local gas–liquid interfacial area are investigated in the aerated stirred tank reactors(STRs) equipped with a rigid-flexible impeller. Meanwhile, the regressive correlation based on power consumption and interfacial area is proposed. Then a novel homogenization energy(HE = RSDPtm) expression based on power consumption and local interfacial area is redefined and used to indicate the mixing efficiency. The optimal operating mode is selected based on the change of the HE value. This paper can provide research ideas for structural optimization of stirred reactors.

Experimental Investigation on Fracture Performance of Short Basalt Fiber Bundle Reinforced Concrete

In this paper,a notched three-point bending test is used to study the fracture performance of the short basalt fiber bundle reinforced concrete(SBFBRC).To compare and analyze the enhancement effect of different diameters and different content of basalt fiber bundles on the fracture performance of concrete,some groups are set up,and the P-CMOD curves of each group of specimens are measured,and the fracture toughness and fracture energy of each control group are calculated.The fracture toughness and fracture energy are two important fracture performance parameters to study the effect and law of the new basalt fiber bundles on the fracture performance of concrete.The research results show that the diameter and content of the new basalt fiber bundles have a certain effect on the fracture performance of concrete.With the increase of the content of basalt fiber bundles,the peak load,crack initiation toughness,instability toughness and fracture energy of SBFBRC are greatly improved compared with the benchmark group.When the fiber bundle diameter is 0.2 mm,the peak load increases by 69.5%compared with the reference group.The instability toughness reaches its maximum value at 0.2 mm diameter,which is 59.7%higher than the benchmark.