1.

0 ABSTRACT

This fluid mixing experiment has been conducted on 3rd October 2017. Mixing is a

common operation in the process industries and is generally performed by a rotating

impeller in a vessel.

Mixing of fluids considered when two fluids are mixed together. In this experiment,

we just used water as the fluid in the tank as the viscosity of other fluid, such as oil, is

high and the value of torque is higher too. This experiment has two objectives and one of

them is to observe the flow patterns that can be achieved by the use of different impellers

with and without the use of baffles. The second objective is to show how the power

consumed by a mixer varies with speed, type of impeller, and with the inclusion of

baffles.

Before starting the experiment, we need to do the general start-up procedures. The

power was switched on and tightening screws were fastened. Then, shaft was lifted up

and brought down by using lifting chain attached to the shaft. Then, the tank was filled

with 30 liters of water. A flat paddle impeller was attached at the end of the shaft. After

that, the angular speed of the impeller was adjusted to 50 rpm to 400 rpm with the

increment of 50 rpm and the flow pattern of the water at every angular speed was

observed and the torque was recorded.The experiment was repeated but the flat paddle is

replaced with turbine impeller and the flow pattern was observed too. Lastly, a baffle

were placed inside the tank with flat paddle impeller and turbine impeller and the reading

of torque was taken. Then the experiment was repeated without the use of baffles. All the

values of angular speed (), force, torque and power were calculated.
2.0 THEORY

Mixers are used in a wide range of industries to combine different materials together

to form one final product from the mixing process.Products obtained from food,

petroleum, mining, pharmaceutical, pulp and paper, and chemical industries would not be

available without fluid mixing equipment and technology. Mixing also plays a vital role

in industrial waste treatment and in environmental cleaning, such as sulfur dioxide

absorption for treatment of acid rain.

A wide range of mixing situations can be found in practice, which may involve high

or low viscosity fluids, suspending solids in liquids, dispersing gas or solids in liquids,

etc. The simplest way used to improve mixing efficiency consists of increasing the

rotational speed, which unfortunately leads to higher energy consumption. In this

experiment, flat paddle and turbine impellers are used to observe the flow pattern of

water