Particle Image Velocimetry Study of Turbulence Characteristics in a Vessel Agitated by a Dual Rushton Impeller

Abstract

Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) has been used to investigate turbulence characteristics in a 0.48 m diameter stirred vessel filled to a liquid height ( H = 1.4 T) of 0.67 m. The agitator had dual Rushton impellers of 0.19 m diameter ( D = 0.4 T). The developed flow patterns depend on the clearance of the lower impeller above the base of the vessel, the spacing between the two impellers, and the submergence of the upper impeller below the liquid surface. Their combinations can generate three basic flow patterns, named, parallel, merging and diverging flows. The results of velocity measurement show that the flow characteristics in the impeller jet flow region changes very little for different positions. Average velocity, trailing vortices and shear strain rate distributions for three flow patterns were measured by using PIV technique. The characteristics of trailing vortex and its trajectory were described in detail for those three flow patterns. Since the space-resolution of PIV can only reach the sub-grid rather than the Kolmogorov scale, a large-eddy PIV analysis has been used to estimate the distribution of the turbulent kinetic energy dissipation. Comparison of the distributions of turbulent kinetic energy and dissipation rate in merging flow shows that the highest turbulent kinetic energy and dissipation are both located in the vortex regions, but the maxima are at somewhat different locations behind the blade. About 37% of the total energy is dissipated in dual impeller jet flow regions. The obtained distribution of shear strain rate for merging flow is similar to that of turbulence dissipation, with the shear strain rate around the trailing vortices much higher than in other areas.