Numerical Simulation of Gas-Liquid Flow in a Stirred Tank with a Rushton Impeller

The gas-liquid flow field in a stirred tank with a Rushton diskturbine, including the impeller region, was numerically simulatedusing the improved inner-outer iterative procedure. Thecharacteristic features of the stirred tank, such as gas cavity andaccumulation of gas at the two sides of wall baffles, can be capturedby the simulation. The simulated results agree well with availableexperimental data. Since the improved inner-outer iterative algorithmdemands on empirical formula and experimental data for the impellerregion, and the approach seems generally applicable for simulatinggas-liquid stirred tanks.

Particle Image Velocimetry Study of Turbulence Characteristics in a Vessel Agitated by a Dual Rushton Impeller

Particle Image Velocimetry （PIV） has been used to investigate turbulence characteristics in a 0.48 m diameter stirred vessel filled to a liquid height （ H = 1.4T ） of 0.67 m. The agitator had dual Rushton impellers of 0.19 m diameter （ D = 0.4T ）. The developed flow patterns depend on the clearance of the lower impeller above the base of the vessel, the spacing between the two impellers, and the submergence of the upper impeller below the liq- uid surface. Their combinations can generate three basic flow patterns, named, parallel, merging and diverging flows. The results of velocity measurement show that the flow characteristics in the impeller jet flow region changes very little for different positions. Average velocity, trailing vortices and shear strain rate distributions for three flow patterns were measured by using PIV technique. The characteristics of trailing vortex and its trajectory were described in detail for those three flow patterns. Since the space-resolution of PIV can only reach the sub-grid rather than the Kolmogorov scale, a large-eddy PIV analysis has been used to estimate the distribution of the turbulent kinetic energy dissipation. Comparison of the distributions of turbulent kinetic energy and dissipation rate in merging flow shows that the highest turbulent kinetic energy and dissipation are both located in the vortex regions, but the maxima are at somewhat different lo- cations behind the blade. About 37% of the total energy is dissipated in dual impeller jet flow regions. The obtained distribution of shear strain rate for merging flow is similar to that of turbulence dissipation, with the shear strain rate around the trailing vortices much higher than in other areas.

Characterization on the hydrodynamics of a covering-plate Rushton impeller

A modified Rushton impeller with two circular covering-plates mounted on the upper and lower sides of the blades was designed.There are gaps between the plates and the blades.The turbulent hydrodynamics was analyzed by the computational fluid dynamics(CFD) method.Firstly,the reliability of the numerical model and simulation method was verified by comparing with the experimental results from literature.Subsequently,the power consumption,flow pattern,mean velocity and mixing time of the covering-plate Rushton impeller(RT-C) were studied and compared with the standard Rushton impeller(RT) operated under the same conditions.Results show that the power consumption can be decreased about 18%.Compared with the almost unchanged flow field in the lower stirred tank,the mean velocity was increased at the upper half of the stirred tank.And in the impeller region,the mean axial and radial velocities were increased,the mean tangential velocity was decreased.In addition,the average mixing time of RT-C was shortened about 4.14% than the counterpart of RT.The conclusions obtained here indicated that RT-C has a more effective mixing performance and it can be used as an alternative of RT in the process industries.

Investigation of the Viscoelastic Effect on the Metzner and Otto Coefficient Through LDA Velocity Measurements

The Metzner and Otto correlation is the single practical method for incorporating non-Newtonian effects in the mixing process. In this article, the Metzner and Otto' s idea, the role of viscoelasticity on the Metzner and Otto coefficient, ks, effects of flow regime on ks and the determination of fc3 for Rushton turbine impeller have been studied using the direct method of the laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) velocity measurement for the case of viscoelastic liquids. The normalized mean tangential velocity profiles are independent of Rushton turbine impeller speeds. Contrary to literature findings, it is shown that the variation of local shear rate against the impeller speed is better correlated by the power equation, i.e. y= k'a Nb' , in the transition region, i. e. - 30 < Re <- 2000. Also, a correlation between improved coefficient, ks', and the elasticity number of viscoelastic liquids is given which is very helpful in designing of the mixing of both viscoelastic and inelastic non-Newtonian fluids through relating rheological properties to kinematical and dynamical parameters of the mixing process.