Simulation and experiment study of flow field and dynamic performance in stirred reactor

Abstract

The flow field character and dynamic performance of flat blade impeller and 45° angle pitched impeller in the stirred reactor have been researched by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) numerical simulation and Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV) measuring experiment. The numerical simulation treated the region around stirring impeller with Multi-Reference Frame method, and analyzed the flow field with RNG k-ε turbulence model. It was found that the simulation result was basically same with experiment result, so the numerical simulation method used in this paper was feasible, and the results were reliable, the turbulent energy mainly generated in the region around impeller, and the turbulent performance of flat blade impeller was obviously better than that of 45° angle pitched impeller, the flat blade impeller and 45° angle pitched impeller had different mixing operating characters it was showed that 45° angle pitched impeller could save almost 40% power consumption than flat blade impeller, through comparison between simulation results and Yong Tian formulas. It could be more economical, fast and reliable to design, optimize and select for the stirred reactor using FLUENT software combining with PIV system.