CFD simulation of impeller stirred tank reactors

• Main Author: Tay, Ming Hui.
• Other Authors: Vinay Kumar Kariwala
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Chemical engineering::Chemical processes
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/39995
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation has been maturing over the last few decades. In this thesis, CFD is employed to predict and study the hydrodynamic flow in the impeller stirred tank. The numerical results captured the formation of re-circulation zone near the inlet and toroidal segregated regions above and below the impellers in the laminar mixing condition. While in the turbulent regime, multiple vortices, chaotic flow pattern and strong radial impeller discharge were observed. Specifically, the simulated numerical results of laminar and turbulent batch reactor were compared with experimental data obtained from literature research. A very good agreement was found for qualitative comparison but a less satisfactory result was found for quantitative comparison. In addition, the effects of inlet and outlet arrangement of laminar continuous stirred tank reactor were examined using CFD simulation and it was deduced that offcentre positioning of inlet and outlet would give rise to asymmetric flow pattern that would erode the toroidal segregated regions and enhance the mixing efficiency.