j

Republic of the Philippines

EASTERN VISAYAS STATE UNIVERSITY
Tacloban City

Laboratory Report in ChE 512L

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY II

by

CABIDOG, Vergel B.

PAGARAO, Alyssa Isabel D.

PROGELLA, Marygrace S.

RABI, Chadine E..

BSChE-5A

Submitted to:

ENGR. JOAN R. ALIGANTE – TOLEDO

ChE Faculty

December 2019
 Experiment no.

AGITATION OF LOW VISCOSITY FLUID

Introduction

Agitation is by far the most common and one of the oldest unit operations used in
the field of Chemical Engineering. It is often interchanged with Mixing, but the two are not
synonymous. Mixing is random distribution of two separate phases into one another and
Agitation is an induced motion of a material in a specified pattern inside a container. All
these can be done when a turbulent motion within the fluid is present, and this will be
accomplished with the use of mechanical devices such as impellers which are attached to a
shaft and the shaft is then mechanically driven by an electric motor which gives the shaft
what is necessary to create the specified flow pattern (usually circular motion) in the liquid
system [ CITATION Mor16 \l 13321 ].

A Chemical Engineer has to be familiar with the factors that contribute to the energy
requirement during the mixing process. Power requirement specifies an agitation tank. This
power is required to overcome all the resistances present in agitation. Power is dependent
on the flow patterns, impeller types, properties of the fluid being studied, tank dimensions
and the height of fluid inside the tank. The power requirement can be predicted by the
correlations of the dimensionless groups involved for each agitation system [ CITATION
Ola15 \l 13321 ]. These dimensionless groups, obtained by dimensional analysis, are as
follows:

 Impeller Reynold’s Number

Da 2 Nρ (1)
N ℜ=
μ
 Froude Number

Da N 2 (2)
N Fr=
gc

where : gc =32.17 ft /sec 2

 Power Number

P gc (3)
N Po= 3 5
N D ρ a

 Power Correlation

(4)

(5)
 NP
=f ( N ℜ , S1 , S 2 ,… … … . Sn ) =ϕ
N mFr
a−log N ℜ
m=
b
 Theoretical Power Consumption

ϕ N mFr N 3 Da 5 ρ (6)
P=
gc

ϕ N 3 Da5 ρ (7)
P=
gc

Objective

The experiment conducted aims to meet the following objectives:

1. To monitor the power consumption of an agitation system defined by parameters

such as impeller speed, liquid density, liquid viscosity and impeller type for baffled
and unbaffled tank.
2. To determine the limiting impeller Reynold’s number for each type of impeller; this
is the limiting number at which the vortex first touches the impeller.

Materials and Equipment

a) Pure water

b) Mixing Tank Apparatus

c) Impellers ( Small Propeller, Large Propeller, Turbine 2 wings, Turbine 4 Wings)

d) Ammeter

e) Voltmeter

f) Tachometer

g) Force meter

h) Ruler

i) Screw driver

Procedure

1. The tank was filled with pure water up to a height equal its diameter.
 2. The four baffles was placed in the tank.
3. The first type of turbine impeller connected was the Small Propeller.
4. Using the variac, the motor was set at lowest possible speed ( no. 2) and voltage,
amperage reading and force was recorded, as well as photos of the pattern created in
the vessel was taken.
5. The speed of the motor was increased by turning up the RPM control to no. 4, 6 and
8 respectively. Voltage, amperage readings, force readings and significant changes in
the flow pattern was noted.
6. The steps was repeated using different types of stirrers (Large Propeller, Turbine 2
wings, Turbine 4 Wings)
7. The baffles was removed, and steps 3, 4 and 5 was repeated.

Results

Raw Data

I. Without Baffles, Small Propeller

PARAMETERS A B C D
Volt Reading
5.37 6.74 8.11 10.03
(V)
Current (A) 379 406 438 472
Vortex Height
0.1 0.28 0.4 0.8
(in)
Vortex
0.6 0.8 1.0 1.3
Diameter (in)
Force 0.04 0.05 0.054 0.07
RPM 149.5 395.8 661.8 919.7

II. Without Baffles, Large Propeller

PARAMETERS A B C D
Volt Reading
6.06 6.78 7.69 8.21
(V)
Current (A) 553 608 662 703
Vortex Height
0.3 1 3.3 4
(in)
Vortex
0.5 1.5 2 2.5
Diameter (in)
Force 0.02 0.04 0.04 0.13
RPM 150.6 204.5 660.5 919.6
 III. Without Baffles, Turbines, 2 wings

PARAMETERS A B C D
Volt Reading
4.295 4.645 5.46 6.02
(V)
Current (A) 750 797 876 899
Vortex Height
0.8 4 6.4 7.5
(in)
Vortex
1 2.2 2.6 3
Diameter (in)
Force 0.03 0.11 0.22 0.38
RPM 140.5 395.5 630.4 802.1

IV. Without Baffles, Turbines, 4 Wings

PARAMETERS A B C D
Volt Reading
4.479 5.026 5.86 6.05
(V)
Current (A) 825 935 1073 1103
Vortex Height
1 5.2 6.5 6.7
(in)
Vortex
1.5 2.5 3 3.6
Diameter (in)
Force 0.02 0.17 0.31 0.40
RPM 140.3 405.1 653.2 898

V. With Baffles, Small Propeller

PARAMETERS A B C D
Volt Reading
5.69 7.15 8.61 8.89
(V)
Current (A) 403 450 503 548
Vortex Height 0 0 0 0
 (in)
Vortex
0 0 0 0
Diameter (in)
Force 0.43 0.44 0.41 0.42
RPM 144.8 395.7 642.5 902.31

VI. With Baffles, Large Propeller

PARAMETERS A B C D
Volt Reading
7.57 9.08 9.66 9.87
(V)
Current (A) 746 897 971 998
Vortex Height
0 0 0 0
(in)
Vortex
0 0 0 0
Diameter (in)
Force 0.45 0.43 0.22 0.29
RPM 154.4 396.9 656.7 899.4

VII. With Baffles, Turbines, 2 Wings

PARAMETERS A B C D
Volt Reading
4.658 4.579 4.492 4.402
(V)
Current (A) 1173 1169 1167 1166
Vortex Height
0 0 0 0
(in)
Vortex
0 0 0 0
Diameter (in)
Force 0.06 0.48 1.26 1.73
RPM 142.9 398.7 663 914.5

VIII. With Baffles, Turbines, 4 Wings

PARAMETERS A B C D
Volt Reading
3.968 3.899 3.881 3.805
(V)
Current (A) 1178 1179 1182 1197
Vortex Height
0 0 0 0
(in)
 Vortex
0 0 0 0
Diameter (in)
Force 0.4 0.7 1.45 2.35
RPM 148.8 408.3 658 912.5

Calculated Data

The Table below shows the resulted calculation of the experiment.

SMALL LARGE TURBINES, 2 TURBINES, 2

Without PROPELLER PROPELLER WINGS WINGS
Baffles
NRe P NRe P NRe P NRe P

A (2) 6184.37 2035.23 15443.5 3351.18 23746 3221.3 23712 3695.2

B (4) 16373.07 2736.44 20971 4122.2 66842 3702.1 68465 4699.3

C (6) 27376.71 3552.18 67732 5090.8 106542 4783 110396 6287.8

D (8) 38045.27 4734.16 94302 5771.6 135561 5412 151769 6673.2

With
Baffles
A (2) 5989.95 2293.07 15833.2 5647.22 24151 5463.8 25148 4674.3

B (4) 16368.94 3217.5 40701 8144.8 67383 5352.9 69006 4596.9

C (6) 26579.32 4330.83 67342 9379.9 112052 5242.2 111207 4587.3

D (8) 37325.89 4871.72 92231 9850.3 154557 5132.7 154219 4554.6

Properties of Water

Density: 1000 kg/m3

Viscosity: 0.00089 N.s/m2

Impeller Dimension (Diameter)

Small Propeller: 0.047 m Turbines, 2 Wings: 0.095 m

Large Propeller: 0.074 m Turbines, 4 Wings: 0.095 m

 Charts

The following charts below shows the difference in Power Consumption

between Baffled and Unbaffled tank in the experiment.

POWER CONSUMPTION (SMALL PROPELLER)

6000
4871.72
4734.16
5000 4330.83
POWER (Watts)

4000 3217.5 3552.18

3000 2736.44
2293.07
2035.23
2000
1000
1 2 3 4
0
1 2 3 4
RPM CONTROL

POWER CONSUMPTION (LARGE PROPELLER)

12000
9379.86 9850.26
10000
8144.76
POWER (Watts)

8000
5647.22 5771.63
6000 5090.78
4122.24
3351.18
4000
2000
0
1 2 3 4
RPM CONTROL
 POWER CONSUMPTION (2 WINGS)
6000
5463.83 5352.85 5411.98
5242.16 5132.73
5000 4782.96
POWER (Watts)

4000 3702.07
3221.25
3000
2000
1000
0
1 2 3 4
RPM CONTROL
 POWER CONSUMPTION (4 WINGS)
8000
7000 6673.15
6287.78
6000
POWER (Watts)

4674.3
5000 4699.31
4596.92 4587.34 4554.59
3695.18
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
1 2 3 4
RPM CONTROL
 Reynold's Number VS Power Consumption
40000

35000

30000

25000

20000

15000

10000

5000

0
2035.23 2736.44 3552.18 4734.16

Reynold's Number Power Consumption

LEGEND:

Without Baffles with Baffles

 Figure 1. Fluid behavior in a baffled vessel

Figure 2. Fluid behavior in an unbaffled vessel

Discussion

It has been observed that as the speed of the impeller was increased, the Reynold’s
Number and Power requirement increases as well. This explains that increasing the
impeller’s size (Small to Large Propeller) will also increase the cost of operation to higher
operating cost. However, an impeller operating at high speed does not automatically mean
that it is operating efficiently, as it can lead to the formation of a whirling mass of water that
will drag everything to the center also called Vortex definitely for unbaffled system shown
in the figure above. Furthermore, it was also shown in the data that the Power Consumption
of the system varies with the type of impeller used, with or without baffles. The power
consumption increases when the large propeller was used specially in baffled vessel. A
sudden drop of Power consumption was also observed when 2 Wings and 4 Wings Turbines
were used with baffles which is way smaller than the unbaffled one.
Calculations

Given: Without Baffles (Small Propeller) RPS = 2.492

Voltage Reading (V) = 5.37 J/C Density of Water = 1000 kg/m3

Current (A) = 379 C/s Viscosity of Water = 0.00089 N.s/m2

Impeller Diameter = 0.047 m

 Impeller Reynold’s Number

Da 2 Nρ
N ℜ=
μ
2.492rev kg
( 0.047 m )2 ( )(1000 3 )
sec m
N ℜ=
0.00089 N . s /m2
N ℜ=6184.37

 Fraud’s Number

Da N 2 2
N Fr= where : gc =9.81m/sec
gc

rev 2
(0.047 m)(2.492 )
sec
N Fr=
9.81 m/s 2
N Fr =0.0297

 Power Number

P gc
N Po= where : P=IV
N 3 D5a ρ
C J m
(379 )(5.37 )( 9.81 2 )
s C s
N Po=
rev 3 5 1000 kg
( 2.492
sec) ( 0.047 m ) (
m3
)

N Po=5627602.15

 Power Correlation
 NP a−log N ℜ 1−log ⁡(6184.37)
m
=f ( N ℜ , S1 , S 2 ,… … … . Sn ) =ϕ where :m= m=
N Fr
b 40

m=−0.0698

REMEMBER:

In liquid mixing systems, baffles are used to suppress vortexing. Since vortexing
is gravitational effect, the Froud number is not required to describe baffled mixing
systems. In this case, the exponent m becomes zero and Fraud no. is equal to 1.

NP 5627602.15
m
=
N ¿¿
Fr

ϕ=4403461.44
 Power Consumption

ϕ N mFr N 3 Da 5 ρ
P=
gc

P=(4403461.44) ¿ ¿
P=2035.23 J / sec

Conclusion

From the data gathered, results of calculation and graphs, it can be concluded that
the Power and Reynold’s Number do increase with RPM. Power requirement is also
dependent with the type of impeller used whether the vessel is baffled or unbaffled. The
presence of baffles increase the power consumption (Small and Large Propeller) which may
result to a high cost in operation. But at the same time, it helps in improving the mixing
since it prevents the formation of vortex which may drag the materials to the center of the
vessel.

Literature Cited

Experiments in Chemical Engineering, 2nd Edition by Servillano S.B Olaño, Jr