CFD-aided contraction-expansion static mixer design for oil-in-water emulsification

Abstract

Abstract Contraction-expansion (CE) static mixers can enable solid-liquid and liquid-liquid dispersion with low energy dissipation, low risk of obstruction, and without moving parts. In this work, the influence of CE elements of different geometries on the imposed turbulence of a flowing liquid has been assessed by a two-dimensional computational fluid dynamic (2D-CFD) simulation. The effect of CE on the dispersion of droplets of an immiscible liquid has also been analysed from simulations, using the volume of fluid (VOF) approach. Direct numerical simulation (DNS) performed by the open-source Gerris Flow Solver software was used to get the velocity fields and turbulence characteristics. Different ratios of CE diameters and lengths were analysed for liquid Reynolds numbers from 500 to 20,000. From simulations, the CE geometry that maximised the average root mean square velocity, as an indicator of turbulence, was determined for different liquid flow rates. It was found that the average RMS had a maximum for a wide range of liquid flow rates when the CE diameter ratio was between 0.55 and 0.59 and the length ratio was between 0.2 and 0.3. Then, a device with seven CE elements with geometrical features within this range was built and used for preparing an oil-in-water emulsion. The test system contained water and sunflower oil (5 % v/v) with the further addition of TritonX100 (0.5 % in volume of the solution) as surfactant. The stability of the emulsions was assessed by measuring the time evolution of turbidity (absorbance at 860 nm), to get the initial separation velocities. The emulsions prepared using the CE device showed initial phase separation rates lower than the one obtained in a stirred flask, evidencing the feasibility of using CE static mixers for preparing emulsions with relatively low energy consumption. Moreover, the emulsions obtained with the CE device, although dependent on the flow rate, showed similar features when obtained with 10, 100 and 250 passes through the CE static mixer.