Computers

&Chemical
Engineering
Computers and Chemical Engineering 24 (2000) 1745-1751
www.elsevier.com/locate/compchemeng

The behavior of stirred vessels with anchor type impellers

S.M.C.P. Pedrosa, J.R. Nunhez *
Departamento de Processes Quimicos-Faculdade de Engenharia Quimica-Universidade Estadual de Campimas C.P. 6066, 13083-970,
Campinas (SP), Brazil

Abstract

Anchor impellers are used specially for highly viscous flow, with the viscosity ranging from 10 to 100 Pa.s, which is typical of
polymer reactions and some processes in food industries. The reactions are normally carried out under laminar flow. Anchor
impellers are also suited for pseudoplastic and thixotropic fluids. Despite its importance in chemical industries, there are few
works, which study anchor type impellers. The computational works for these impellers in the literature are very scarce and
normally show a coarse grid and rough approximations to the shape of the vessel. This work presents a detailed model of a stirred
vessel using anchor impellers. It calculates for the three components of the velocity on a two dimensional grid. The simulations
refer to the secondary flow, which is of particular interest because, under laminar flow, it controls heat transfer. 0 2000 Elsevier
Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Anchor impeller; Stirred vessels; Computational fluid dynamics; Finite volumes method; Pseudo-plastic fluids; Secondary flow

1. Introduction therefore, predicting from small scale equipment, which

is not geometrically similar to prototype, is hazardous
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is playing a (Edwards & Wilkinson, 1972). In order to improve the
key role in helping to understand the flow inside stirred design of these systems, it is necessary to know a
tanks. It is becoming a useful tool in the analysis of the detailed picture of the flow, which would reveal details
highly complex flow inside stirred vessels. The design of such as dead zones and other inefficiencies that could
these vessels to date assume uniform temperature and be eliminated, or minimized. Another aspect that
perfect mixing, which are strong assumptions that should be observed is that industries today have to
clearly are not the case. This aspect can be critical comply with safety and environmental regulations. This
especially for highly exothermic reactions and for non- aspect, associated with the need to ensure products with
Newtonian fluids, typical of polymer reactions. For a high quality calls for well thought and planned design
mixing polymerization reactor, selection of the impeller and rigid process operation. Even though experimental
type largely determines the physical properties of the works have improved recently, they unfortunately have
polymer being formed. The experimental works and not been able to address to all the needs listed above.
empirical correlations are often not suitable for many Improvements in these areas call for the use of compu-
systems and also can only give a global picture of the tational studies. The CFD has been used in the last two
performance of the reactor. Furthermore, the great decades to devise solutions and gain insight of the flow
majority of correlations have been obtained from small- inside these systems and CFD, together with experi-
scale equipment and there are very few large-scale data mental validation, has been able to improve the design
with which one can assess the scale-up predictions of of many reactor systems.
these correlations. Additionally, if heat transfer is im- Anchor impellers are used specially for highly viscous
portant for the design, the influence of geometrical flow, with the viscosity ranging from 10 to 100 Pa.s,
parameters upon heat transfer is rather obscure and which is typical of polymer reactions and some pro-
cesses in food industries. The reactions are normally
* Corresponding author. carried out under laminar flow. They are also suited for
E-mail addresses: simone@feq.unicamp.br (S.M.C.P. Pedrosa), pseudoplastic and thixotropic fluids. This is particularly
nunhez@feq.unicamp.br (J.R. Nunhez). an interesting feature of this kind of impeller because

0098-1354/00/S - see front matter 0 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: SOO98-1354(00)00456-7
1746 S.M.C.P. Pedrosa, J.R. Nunhez / Computers and Chemical Engineering 24 (2000) 1745-l 751

the blades of this stirrer rotate very close to the wall. 2. Modeling and simulation
Therefore, a high shear stress is present in the impeller
close clearance, which lessens the apparent viscosity of The model calculates the three components of veloc-
pseudoplastic fluids. Thus mixing is improved for these ity, pressure, temperature and non-Newtonian viscosity
systems. Also, since the blades rotate close to the wall, on a two dimensional grid for a single phase flow.
the fouling of the wall surfaces are minimized. How- Reaction is taken into account by a source term, which
ever, there is a great drawback in the use of this kind of is included in the energy equation, generating the heat
impeller, which refers to a high power consumption. representing an exothermic reaction inside the vessel.
There are few works in the literature which study Heat is eliminated from the reactor using a jacket.
anchor type impellers. The great majority of works for
stirred vessels refers to turbine impellers, especially 2.1. Governing equations
six-blade Rushton turbines, under turbulent flow. The
computational works for anchor stirrers are scarce and Mass conservation
normally show a coarse grid. Also, rough approxima-
tions to the shape of the vessel are assumed. C?+T+$o (1)
This work presents a detailed simulation of a stirred
vessel using anchor impellers. The model calculates for Momentum balance
the three components of the velocity on a two dimen- l radial direction
sional grid. The simulations refer to the secondary flow au, U;
aa,
generated by this impeller. The primary flow generated %,r+“z~-~
by anchor impellers, using a two dimensional grid, have
been reported by some investigators (Kaminoyama,
Saito & Kamiwano, 1990; Kaminoyama, Akabane, (2)
Arai, Saito & Kamiwano, 1990; Kaminoyama, Saito &
Kamiwano, 1993, 1994; Rubart & Bohme, 1991). How- l angular direction
ever, despite being important to know how the primary
flow of these reactors behaves, the secondary flow is of
particular interest because heat transfer in these systems
under laminar flow is controlled by the secondary flow.
A very important detail in the design of vessels
agitated by anchor impellers that cannot be simplified l axial direction
in the modeling of the secondary flow is that the
bottom of the vessel should be curved, and the blades
of the stirrer should follow the contour of the vessel.
This is crucial to capture the discharge flow in these
systems. Another point that should be analyzed care-
fully is that the mesh of the secondary flow needs to be
fine, specially near walls and blades, where velocity Energy conservation
gradients are steeper and the discharge flow is
generated.
This work describes a model which gives a detailed
picture for the secondary flow of stirred vessels agitated
by anchor impellers. Several operational conditions and Power law model for the non-Newtonian viscosity:
different geometries are tested to show that a detailed
knowledge of these systems can help to improve the iu = I%#“- l (6)
design and operation of these reactors.

Table 1
Fluid properties

Density p = 1320 kg.mp3

Viscosity p,, = 45, 60 Pas The parameters used are y1= 0.7 and 1.
Heat capacity Cp= 100 J kg-’ K-’ Table 1 gives the properties of the fluid and Table 2
Thermal conductivity k=O.l W m-’ K-’
gives the dimensions for the tank being studied. Fig. 1
Heat transfer coefficient (wall) h, = 500 W m-* K-’
Heat transfer coefficient (free surface) h,=5 W mm2K-’
shows the geometry being modeled. In this case, there is
Heat source (fixed) AH= 1200 W me3 a blade support joining shaft and impeller blades. This
work analyses the impeller with and without the blade
 S.M.C.P. Pedrosa, J.R. Nunhez / Computers and Chemical Engineering 24 (2000) 1745-l 751
Table 2
Tank dimensions used in model
T 1.120 m
Tank diameter
Impeller diameter D 1.070 m
Shaft diameter De 0.060 m
Liquid height z 1.500 m
Impeller height C 0.707 m; 1.13 m
Blades width s 0.110 m
Fig. 1. Stirred vessel with an anchor impeller.
support. Since symmetry about the z axis is assumed,
only half section needs to be modeled.
2.2. Boundary conditions
2.2.1. Liquid free surface
There is no shear stress, which is acceptable for
laminar flow (Edwards & Wilkinson, 1972). Therefore,
a flat surface is assumed and axial velocity is null.
2.2.2. Bottom and walls of the vessel
There is no slip, so velocity is null.
2.2.3. Impeller blades
The presence of the two blades of an anchor impeller
strictly calls for a time dependant, three dimensional
model. However, it will be considered a two dimen-
sional model calculating for the three components of
the velocity. An axi-symmetric model calculating for
the three components of the velocity can only be fully
justified for disk type impellers. In the case of the two
blades of the anchor impeller, the impeller blades only
appear in two vertical sections, which change, as the
stirrer rotates. A two dimensional representation is,
therefore, only capturing part of the information. In
this respect, any prediction will only be an approxima-
tion. For this first phase in the analysis, however, what
is required is a reasonably representative picture. Much
effort has been devoted to approximating the effect of
the blades in two dimensions. These effectively define
the angular component of velocity in the entire swept
volume of the impeller. Clearly, the actual flow will be
somewhat different. To deal with this. Kuncewiez
1141
(1992) proposed a drag coefficient factor for the angu-
lar component of the velocity which counteracts the
effect of the impeller blade acting on the whole of the
swept region of the impeller. He suggested an empirical
factor, ranging from 0 to 1 to be applied to the angular
velocity given by the expression:
i& = u0 exp(1 - 2), (nP is the number of blades)
(8)
This approach has been used by some authors and it
is able to provide a good representation for the flow
patterns inside the tank Nunhez and McGreavy (1995),
Foumeny, Holiday and Sandhu (1993).
2.2.4. Bottom and walls of the vessel
For jacketed arrangements, it is assumed that there is
enough cooling liquid inside the jacket to maintain
temperature at 10°C. .
At the walls and the bottom of the vessel it is
assumed that the heat is removed by the jacket, so the
boundary condition is:
qj= - k~ =h,(T-T,) (9)
( )
At the free surface heat is lost to the air:
qfs = - kg = hfS(T - TrS)
( >
The set of non linear equations and respective
boundary conditions describing the model is solved by
the finite volume method using the CFX-4.2 package by
AEA technology. The SIMPLEC method (Van Door-
maal & Raithby, 1984) is used to avoid pressure oscilla-
tions. Mass residual was set for an error E< lo- lo.
3. Results and discussion
In order to demonstrate how CFD can help to
improve the design and operation of vessels agitated by
anchor impellers, a case study referring to the homoge-
nizing of orange juice is analyzed. After orange juice is
concentrated to a juice containing 35% of water, it is
cooled from 40 to 20°C and sent to a homogenizing
tank, which is normally agitated by anchor impellers.
Juice from several batches is homogenized at - 10°C
before receiving a tinal treatment, which guarantees a
juice prepared under rigid quality control. The charac-
teristics of the product are:
Temperature (“C) 8.0 0.0 - 10.0
Viscosity (Pa.s) 20 45 60
1748 S.M.C.P. Pedrosa, J.R. Nunhez /Computers
A mesh independent study is carried out to guarantee
that results are independent on mesh size. The ap-
proach used by Foumeny et al. (1993) and Nunhez and
McGreavy (1994, 1995) was adopted. This simple, but
efficient, test guarantees that a good mesh density is
used when no adaptive mesh generation technique is
available. It consists in analyzing all variables calcu-
Fig. 2. Comparison to mesh coarser and finer in plane X to z = 0.75,
(a) u, vs. r; (b) u, vs. r [- finer, ---- coarser].
Fig. 3. Comparison to mesh coarser and finer in plane Y to r = 0.28,
(a) u, vs. z; (b) u, vs. z[- finer and ------ coarser].
(b)
Fig. 4. Velocity vector plot, ,u =45 Pa.s. Impeller without blade
support, blade height ratio = 0.47 (a) 136 rpm and (b) 317 rpm.
and Chemical Engineering 24 (2000) 1745-l 751
lated by the two mesh densities at several positions. The
mesh is refined until results for both meshes do not
vary considerably for any variable.
Figs. 2 and 3 compare radial and axial velocities for
two different sections of the reactor for the two meshes.
The results are very similar. Fig. 3 (b), which shows the
variation of the radial velocity as a function of z for the
radial position Y= 0.28 m (halfway between shaft and
wall), has the more pronounced (even though small)
variations for the velocities. The finer mesh used 13 080
volumes and the elapsed time for the run was 3 days, 9
h and 12 min on a 5 12 MB, ULTRA 5 of SUN systems
with a 273 MHz processor. It is a very expensive
computational time, especially if compared to the
coarser mesh that took 11 h and 44 min to run. The
other variables were also tested, and results showed the
same trend. Therefore, the mesh density of 5492 control
volumes was used for the experimental runs.
Fig. 4(a) shows the velocity vector plot for the rota-
tional speed of 136 rpm and a viscosity of 45 Pa.s. The
impeller is rotating at low speed for industrial applica-
tions, considering the dimensions of the tank used in
this work. The ratio between the height of the impeller
blade and the height of the liquid is 0.47. There is no
blade support for the impeller. A single recirculation
zone, centered near the curve separating bottom and
vessel walls is formed. It is expected to have poor fluid
circulation at the center of the recirculation zones be-
cause axial and radial velocities there are negligible,
independent on impeller speed. It is noticed, however,
that the velocities for the fluid near the free surface are
very low, indicating that fluid is poorly mixed. This
suggests that impeller speed is not enough for this
system. Fig. 4(b) shows the velocity vector plot for a
rotational speed of 3 17 rpm, which defines a medium
industrial speed for anchor impellers. As expected, flow
is improved, giving a better fluid circulation. The region
near the free surface is better mixed, especially when
compared to the speed of 136 rpm. However, power
consumption is much higher.
Another way to improve mixing for anchor impellers
is to use impellers having a higher blade height. A
geometry having the ratio between the height of the
impeller blade and the height of the liquid of 0.75 is
tested for a rotational speed of 317 rpm. Fig. 5(a)
shows how mixing is improved for this system. Again,
the drawback is that power consumption is also
increased.
Fig. 5(b) shows the velocity vector plot for a rota-
tional speed of 317 rpm and viscosity p = 45 Pa.s. For
this case, there is a blade support joining the blades to
the impeller shaft. The flow is Very similar to the
impeller without blade support. However, circulation
near the free surface of the liquid is improved. The
drawback again is a higher power consumption. Studies
also indicate that mixing improves as viscosity lessens.
 S. M. C.P. Pedrosa, J. R. Nunhez / Computers and Chemical Engineering 24 (2000) 1745- I751 1749

0.7). The values of the non-Newtonian viscosity are

lower near the impeller blades, because of high shear
stress at the close clearance between blades and wall.
The viscosity is higher at the center of the recirculation
zone, where fluid is stagnant.

(a)

Fig. 5. Velocity vector plot, ,u = 45 Pas; 317 rpm. Blade height

ratio = 0.75, (a) impeller without blade support; and (b) impeller with
blade support.

Fig. 6 shows the velocity vector plot for a pseudo-

plastic fluid (n = 0.7). It can be noticed that the magni-
tudes of the velocities are higher near the blades, which Fig. 6. Velocity vector plot, p =45 Pas; 317 rpm. Blade height
is a direct consequence of the fact that the apparent ratio = 0.75; pseudoplastic fluid (n = 0.7). Impeller with blade sup-
viscosity is lower, especially in the clearance between port.
blades and wall. The viscosity there is about five times
less than the Newtonian viscosity (the reader should
refer to Fig. 8).
Fig. 7 shows the temperature distribution for the ,20.42 oc
18.68 oc
rotational speed of 317 rpm. As already mentioned, 16.95 OC
heat transfer follows the secondary flow. There is a 15.21 oc
13.47 OC
formation of a single recirculation zone in the sec-
11.7-I oc
ondary flow. The higher values for the temperature 10.00 oc
refer to the center of the recirculation zones, which is a
region of poor top to bottom fluid circulation. This
observation agrees with previous experimental analysis.
Even though it is not shown, temperature distribution
is more uniform for the angular speed of 317 rpm than
for 136 rpm. This happens because the increase in the
speed of rotation promotes better fluid mixing and
maximum average temperature for the higher rotational
speed is lower. In this respect, CFD helps to determine
preferred reactor mode of operation. Fig. 8 shows the Fig. 7. Temperature contour plot, p,, = 45 Pas; 317 rpm. Impeller
non-Newtonian viscosity of a pseudoplastic fluid (n = without blade support, blade height ratio = 0.47.
1750 S.M.C.P. Pedrosa, J.R. Nunhez /Computers
Fig. 8. Non-Newtonian viscosity, ,uc,= 45 Pas; 317 rpm; blade height
ratio = 0.75 with blade support.
4. Concluding remarks
The model presented in this work gives a good
representation for the flow, temperature and non-New-
tonian viscosity fields for anchor impellers. It shows
that mixing can be improved by the increase of rota-
tional speed and by the use of impellers with a higher
blade height and with a blade support. However, a
trade off should be made since power consumption is
increased. Since anchor impellers promote axial flow
(strictly speaking, the anchor impeller is a radial im-
peller because the discharge is normal to the axis of
rotation, however, the formation of a single recircula-
tion zone is typical of axial impellers), fluid is poorly
mixed at the center of the recirculation zones, indepen-
dent of the level of agitation or height of the impeller
blade. CFD helped to see that anchor impellers are
particularly suited for pseudoplastic fluids because it
promotes mixing at the close clearance between blades
and wall, where flow is generated. This model is to be
compared to a full three dimensional method. Since the
three dimensional model needs at least a 180 degrees
sector, it is easy to see that simulations will be exces-
sively time consuming and a high performance equip-
ment is needed for the calculations.
5. Nomenclature
T tank diameter [m]
c impeller height [m]
D impeller diameter [m]
De shaft diameter [m]
Z liquid height [m]
s impeller width [m]
r radial direction [m]
and Chemical Engineering 24 (2000) 1745-l 751
axial direction [m]
axial velocity [m s-‘1
radial velocity [m s- ‘1
angular velocity [m s-i]
power number for the non-Newtonian
attributes
P pressure Ir\r m-‘1
AH heat source [w mV3]
average reaction viscosity [kg m-l s-i]
PO Newtonian viscosity [kg m-’ s-l]
P density [kg mm31
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank FAPESP and
FAEP/UNICAMP for the grants received for this
project
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