Numerical simulation of a fully baffled biological reactor: The differential circumferential averaging mixing plane approach

A modified mixing plane approach for steady state simulation of flow field in fully baffled biological reactor is presented and discussed. Without requiring any experimental input, this approach of dividing the vessel into suitable number of connected and disconnected zones; solving steady state equation separately in each zone and then transferring information between them, provides a computationally less intensive alternative for simulating the flow in the whole vessel. Impeller used is the standard Rushton Turbine positioned at mid-height of the reactor and simulations are carried out using standard k-epsilon turbulence model implemented in CFD code FLUENT. Meshing is done using tetrahedral elements such that mesh size gradually increases from the center to the periphery. Most of the previous simulation works present only a few aspects of the flow field with scant importance to the energy balance in the tank and near tip turbulence. In this work, complete model prediction for velocity field and turbulence parameters (near tip and in the bulk region) are validated by comparison with experimental data. As compared to previous simulation works, the results predicted by this Differential circumferential averaging mixing plane approach show a better qualitative and quantitative agreement with the published experimental data. A distribution of energy dissipation in various zones of vessel is presented. Also a qualitative picture of flow field and stagnant zones inside the reactor is presented and discussed. Comparison of flow characteristics for different number of baffles shows that for the present dimension of the vessel, five baffles gives maximum enhanced mixing. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.