CFD analysis of turbulence non-homogeneity in mixing vessels - A two-compartment model

A two-compartment model has been developed for calculating the droplet/particle size distribution in suspension polymerization reactors by taking into account the large spatial variations of the turbulent kinetic energy and its dissipation rate in the vessel. The two-compartment model comprised two mixing zones, namely an impeller zone of high local energy dissipation rates and a circulation zone of low kinetic energy. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was employed for generating the spatial distribution of energy dissipation rates within an unbaffled mixing vessel agitated by a flat two-blade impeller. A general methodology was developed for extracting, from the results of the CFD simulations, the volume ratio of the impeller over the circulation zone, the ratio of the average turbulent dissipation rates in the two zones, and the exchange flow rate between the two compartments. The effect of agitation rate, continuous phase viscosity, impeller diameter, and mixing vessel scale on the two-compartment model parameters was elucidated. The two-compartment model was then applied to a non-homogeneous liquid-liquid dispersion process to calculate the time evolution of the droplet size distribution in the mixing vessel. An excellent agreement was obtained between theoretical and experimental results on droplet size distributions obtained from a laboratory-scale reactor operated over a wide range of experimental conditions. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.