Hydrodynamic intensification and interfacial regulation strategy for the mixing process of non-Newtonian fluids

Abstract

Efficiently realizing laminar flow mixing of non-Newtonian fluids is a key challenge faced by conventional stirred reactors. In this study, an innovative strategy is proposed to regulate the flow pattern from radial to axial flow by changing the interface evolution of the flow field, so as to solve the problem of uneven mixing materials in laminar flow. An innovative combination of the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) brightness analysis and quantitative analysis area method was used to quantitatively describe the mixing performance of the three stirred reactor in the laminar flow. We found that the coloring area ratio of the dual shaft off-centred mixer (DSO) mixer was approximately 165.7 % and 93.8 % higher than that of the single shaft central (SSC) and single shaft off-centred mixer (SSO), respectively. Results showed that the DSO mixer can directionally adjust the stable interface of the flow field, and then obtain the ideal velocity distribution and flow pattern. Importantly, it is found that the mixer has an inherent axial mixing limit in the laminar flow. Increasing the Reynolds number can only shorten the time for the mixing system to reach the steady state, and cannot further improve the axial transport capacity of the system. Compared to the SSC and SSO systems, the DSO mixer demonstrated a reduction of nearly 20 % in overall mixing time and power consumption. Through comparative analysis of pressure distribution and Poincaré cross section, the DSO mixing system can switch chaos oscillation and realize the “globally chaotic mixing” from “locally chaotic mixing”. Remarkably, this work highlights the potential of DSO mixer as a simple and efficient system for laminar flow mixing applications, such as polymerization processes, biological fermentation.