Mixing Characteristics Of Gas-Liquid Flow In A Static Mixer: A Numerical Study

Ryan Anugrah Putra

doi:10.28989/angkasa.v12i2.654

Abstract

Mixing characteristics of gas-liquid co-current upward flow inside a vertical pipe equipped with a helical static mixer element were numerically investigated. The results from computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations with Euler-Euler model of three different length to diameter ratio (L/D) of the static mixer elements were compared. All simulated static mixers provide a better mixing condition in the comparison with the one without a static element. The sudden increase of rotational strength indicated by the liquid velocity curl was observed once the gas-liquid flows enter the static-mixer element zone. The smallest L/D static mixer provides the highest liquid velocity curl in the smallest axial distance providing the most effective mixing process among the tested elements. The best mixing characteristics shown by radial gas distribution was achieved with the static mixer with a smallest L/D.

Highlights

Mixing is an important process in many applications e.g. chemical, bio-chemical, pharmaceutical, agricultural and food industries [1][2]
Figure 2 shows the contours of gas fraction on the central plane for gas-liquid flow inside the pipe without and with static mixer element
The gas is mixed with the liquid inside the static mixer element

Summary

Introduction

Mixing is an important process in many applications e.g. chemical, bio-chemical, pharmaceutical, agricultural and food industries [1][2]. Using advance measurement technique of ultrafast electron beam X-ray tomography[4] observed that the centrifugal force generated by the static mixer element leads to the formation of a swirling flow where the gas is accumulated towards the center of the pipe while the liquid towards the pipe wall. They observed that the addition of static mixer elements reduces the swirling motion of the gas-liquid flows[4]

Methods

Results

Conclusion