Transient structural analysis of a Turbula mixer

Abstract

Powder mixing is a significant step in the manufacturing process of many industrial products such as pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs, plastics, fertilizers, and ceramics. Especially in recent years, with the development of material technology, the importance of powder mixers has increased. But dynamic characteristics of powder mixer is very complex problem. In this paper, a Turbula type mixer has been modeled with the Solidworks® and its nonlinear transient response was investigated by the Finite Element Method (FEM). Finite element analysis (FEA) was used to determine the transient response of the vessel and stirrups under different load conditions. The transient analysis is carried out for different rotation speeds (30, 45, and 60 rev/min) of powder mixer and equivalent stresses on vessel and stirrup were obtained. In addition, 1, 3 and 5 kg mass added to the vessel homogeneously in order to obtain the influence of added mass (represent the powder mass). Results revealed that with increasing rotation speed and added mass, the equivalent stress in the vessel and stirrups increased. Maximum stress occurred in the joint of stirrup and vessel. Commercial software ANSYS Workbench (version 19.2) and nonlinear ANSYS® Mechanical APDL solver have utilized for transient response of powder mixer.