Experimental study on gas-liquid flow regimes of coaxial mixers equipped with a Rushton/pitched blade turbine and anchor

Abstract

In view of the close relationship between gas-liquid mass transfer performance and flow regime, the coaxial mixer was selected as the research object, and the effects of rotation mode, inner impeller diameter, gas flow rate, and viscosity on flow regimes were experimentally investigated. The results showed that the main growth interval of the mass transfer coefficient was the loading regime, and the critical complete dispersion regime was an efficient and economic operation condition. In this state, the co-rotation mode had a low-power advantage compared to the counter-rotation mode. The anchor speed and gas flow rate could improve mass transfer performance, but at the expense of higher power consumption. Although it was easier to achieve the complete dispersion regime with a larger diameter impeller, the mass transfer performance was reduced at this time. The viscosity had a significant negative influence on gas-liquid dispersion and mass transfer performance. In terms of impeller combinations, PBTD+Anchor and RT+Anchor performed well in low and high viscous systems, respectively. In addition, applying the artificial neural network model to estimate the Ncd for the coaxial mixer correlated with the studied parameters to recognize the complete dispersion regime.