Numerical Simulation of Dense Solid-Liquid Mixing in Stirred Vessel with Improved Dual Axial Impeller

Abstract

Computational fluid dynamics (CFDs) were adopted in order to investigate the solid suspending process in a dense solid–liquid system (with a solid volume fraction of 30%), agitated by a traditional dual axial impeller and a modified dual axial impeller, otherwise known as a dual triple blade impeller (DTBI) and a dual rigid-flexible triple blade impeller (DRFTBI), respectively. The effects of rotational speed, connection strap length/width, and off-bottom clearance on the solid distribution were investigated. The results show that the proportion of solid concentration larger than 0.4 in the DTBI system was 26.56 times of that in the DRFTBI system. This indicates that the DRFTBI system can strengthen the solid suspension and decrease the solid accumulation in the bottom of the tank. Furthermore, the velocity and turbulent kinetic energy in the DRFTBI system were promoted. In addition, for an optimal selection, the optimum length of connection strap was 1.2 H1, the optimum range of connection strap width was D/7–D/8, and the off-bottom clearance selected as T/4 was better.