Numerical Simulation of the Mechanical Stirring Process in a Tannin-Based Foaming Precursor Resin

Tannin foam is a new functional material.It can be widely applied to the automobile industry,construction industry,and packaging industry due to its wide range of raw materials,renewable,easily degraded,low cost and almost no pollution.Preparing tannin foam is a very complex process that includes high temperature,two phases,mechanical agitation,and phase change.To investigate the influence of the stirring velocity and paddle shape,simulation was calculated by making use of the volume of fluid(VOF)method and multiple reference frame(MRF)method in a three-dimensional flow field of tannin-based foaming precursor resin.The gas holdup and velocity magnitude were analysed with various conditions of mechanical velocities and paddle shape in the stirring flow field.The result shows the higher the velocity,the greater the disturbance and paddle shape between the eggbeater and the Rushton turbine,obviously the paddle shape of the eggbeater with a wider range of agitation,which can entrap more air into the tannin-based foaming precursor resin in a short time.Especially when the speed is 1500 rpm,the flow field of the Rushton turbine comes out of a ditch,which decreases the efficiency of mass transfer;there is less air to mix into the tannin-based foaming precursor resin,which causes unevenness.At the same time,the eggbeater shows the marvelous capability of hybrid as it has two vortexes and multiple cycles that make a difference from the Rushton turbine,which has only one vortex and two upper and lower loops;the structure makes the flow field more stable allowed evenness of flow field tannin-based foaming precursor resin.The results reveal that it is beneficial for tannin-based foaming precursor resin to use an eggbeater with a speed of 1500 rpm to reduce the consumption of resources while obtaining a uniform flow field.

Characterization of the Engineering Flow in a Miniaturised Bioreactor by Computational Fluid Dynamics

Three approaches based on computational fluid dynamics(CFD) techniques have been assessed for their ability to describe the engineering flow environment in a miniaturized mechanically agitated bioreactor. The three approaches tested were the source-sink(SS), the multiple reference frames(MRF) and the sliding grids(SG). In all the cases, the predictions of the velocity components agree with reported experimental data. However, the analysis of the results of the turbulent intensities predicted by the three approaches indicates the MRF and the SG techniques under predicted turbulent intensities are comparable to both experimental measurements and the SS method. The predicted power number and pumping number based on the SS approach are closer to typical reported experimental values compared to those obtained from the MRF and SG methods.

Degradation of 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane by Mechanochemical Method

[Objective]We aimed to study the degradation of 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane by mechanochemical method.[Method] Nano-scale NiO particles were prepared by homogeneous precipitation method using nickel sulfate hexahydrate NiSO 4 ·6H 2 O as a raw material and ammonium carbonate (NH 4) 2 CO 3 as precipitant.The catalytic effect of NiO on the degradation of 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane has been investigated.[Result]The concentrations of chloride ion increased as the enhancement of initial concentrations of tetrachloroethane and amounts of catalyst,and the degradation efficiency of tetrachloroethane in water were influenced by the initial concentrations of tetrachloroethane,amounts of catalyst and so on.[Conclusion] This research could provide a novel method for the degradation of 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane as an organic pollutant.

Physical simulation of bubble refinement in bottom blowing process with mechanical agitation

In order to increase the contact area and promote the mass transfer process of gas and liquid,the process of the bubble refine-ment in a metallurgical reactor with mechanical agitation was studied by physical simulation.Based on the capillary number,a prediction equation for the bubble refinement was established.The effects of the gas flow rate,the stirring speed and thestirring depth on the bubble refinement in the reactor were discussed in detail.The distribution of the bubble diameter in thereactor was obtained under different conditions.The results show that when the stirring speed reaches 300 r/min,the bubblediamcter mainly distributes in the range of 1-2 mm.A higher gas flow rate may increase the number of bubbles in the meltand promote the bubble refinement process.The mechanism of bubble refinement under mechanical agitation was analyzed.and the results indicated that the stirring speed.,the blade area and the blade inclination are the main influencing factors.

Effect of magnesium injection process on hot metal desulfurization

To solve the technical problems of hot metal desulfurization by injecting magnesium particulate, a new method of hot metal desulfurization by bottom-blowing magnesium vapor combined with mechanical agitation was put forward. The effects of three different desulfurization processes on the desulfurization efficiency were studied in view of thermodynamics and kinetics. It was found that the utilization efficiency of magnesium can reach 82.6% and desulfurization efficiency can reach 86.2% during the first 4 min using the method of magnesium vapor injection combined with mechanical agitation. The gasification of magnesium powder leads to significant splashing and magnesium losses in the process of magnesium powder injection, resulting in a low utilization efficiency of magnesium of 51.8% and a low desulfurization efficiency of 55.76%. Activation energy for a first-order kinetic relationship between magnesium powder and sulfur was measured from the experiments, which was 142.82 kJ/mol in the temperature range of 1573-1723 K. The activation energy of the reaction between magnesium vapor and sulfur was around 54.8-65.0 kJ/mol in the temperature range of 1573-1723 K, which indicates that the desulfurization with magnesium vapor proceeds relatively easier than the desulfurization with magnesium powder.