Investigation of effects of impeller geometry on the spatial distribution of turbulent field and micro-mixing performance in a stirred reactor equipped with multiple impellers

Abstract

There are few studies on the effects of spatial distribution of hydrodynamics on the micro-mixing in stirred reactors. In this work, a statistical approach is introduced to quantitatively assess the spatial distributions of hydrodynamic parameters, using the turbulent dissipation rate as an example. According to the results, the effects of impeller geometry and angular velocity on the turbulent dissipation rate can be well described in terms of the volume-averaged values and spatial distribution functions. In the present study, a more uniform distribution of the turbulent dissipation rate is achieved by the multiple impellers with an inclinational angle of 15° at the same rotational speed. However, increasing the inclinational angle can decrease the volume-averaged value. The cumulative percentage of area-averaged turbulent dissipation rate is well modeled by an exponential function. The effects of impeller types on the meso- and micro-mixing processes are also investigated. It is found that the micro-mixing process has more significant influences than the meso-mixing process in the bottom region and near the free surface. The effects of impeller types on the micro-mixing performance are further investigated using the Villermaux–Dushman reaction system, both experimentally and numerically. An empirical correlation that considers the spatial distribution of turbulent parameters for the reaction rate of I2 synthesis is proposed. The results show that the predictions of segregation index, which represents micro-mixing performance, are improved by a numerical model coupled with the new reaction rate model.