Assessment of interaction between baffles and impeller blades in stirred tanks

Abstract

In this work, the sensitivity of hydrodynamics on stirrer position is considered when the Multiple Reference Frame technique is applied to simulate mixing tanks of single and multiphase systems. A typical stirred reactor equipped with four baffles and a six blade Rushton turbine was chosen for the studies. Operational conditions of constant speed (5 rps) and 2.65310-4 m/s gas superficial velocity with single bubble size (1 mm) were set. The reactor was simulated in Fluent 15 with four different impeller blade positions. The results were averaged and validated against experimental data produced by Particle Image Velocimetry. The comparison was made using profiles of velocity components along the sampled lines representing various zones of the vessel. The impeller angle of rotation with respect to baffle position was found to contribute to the overall reactor hydrodynamics especially for multiphase systems. Averaging of the simulation results was found to improve the accuracy of the simulated mixing hydrodynamics.