Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of liquid-liquid mixing in mixer settler

Abstract

Mixer-settlers are widely used inmetallurgical, mineral and chemical process. One of the greatest challenges in the area of hydrometallurgy process simulation is agitation made by impeller inside mixer-settler which yet presents one of the most common operations. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model has been developed to predict the effect of different physical parameters including temperature and density on the mixing characteristics of the system. It is noted that non-isotropic nature of flow in a mixer-settler, the complex geometry of rotating impellers and the large disparity in geometric scales present are some of the factors which contribute to the simulation difficulty. The experimental data for different velocity outlet was also used in order to validate the model.