Professional Documents
Culture Documents
• Effective agitation and mixing of fluids is one of the primary criteria for successful
completion of many processing operations.
• Mixing is the random distribution, into and through one another, of two or more
initially separate phases.
• A single homogeneous material, such as a tankful of cold water, can be agitated, but it
cannot be mixed until some other material (such as a quantity of hot water or some
powdered solid) is added to it.
• Consider, in one case, two gases that are brought together and thoroughly blended and, in a
second case, sand, gravel, cement, and water tumbled in a rotating drum for a long time.
• In both cases the final product is said to be mixed. Yet the products are obviously not
equally homogeneous.
• Here, we deals mainly with agitation of liquids of low to moderate viscosity, mixing of
liquids, liquid-gas dispersions and iquid-solid suspensions.
Mixing
• Purposes of mixing
I. Suspending solid particles
II. Blending miscible liquids, e.g., methyl alcohol and water
III. Dispersing a gas through the liquid in the form of small bubbles
IV. Dispersing a second liquid, immiscible with the first, to form an emulsion or
suspension of fine drops.
V. Preparation of emulsions, pastes and creams.
VI. Promoting heat transfer between the liquid and a coil or jacket
Mixing of Liquids
• Liquids are usually mixed by impellers / agitator, which produce shear force for inducing the
necessary flow patterns in the mixing container.
• Tangential component
• Characteristics of fluid
• The top of the vessel may be open to the air; more usually it is
closed.
• The flow currents leaving the impeller continue through the liquid in a given direction until
deflected by the floor or wall of the vessel.
• At high impeller speeds the vortex may be so deep that it reaches the impeller
and gas from above the liquid is drawn down into the charge.
Prevention of swirling
• Circulatory flow and swirling can be prevented by
any of following methods. In small tanks, the
impeller can be mounted off center, as shown in
Figure.
• The shaft is moved away from the centerline of the
tank, then tilted in a plane perpendicular to the
direction of the move.
• In larger tanks, the agitator may be mounted in the
side of the tank, with the shaft in a horizontal plane
but at an angle with a radius.
• In large tanks with vertical agitators, the preferable method of reducing swirling
is to install baffles, which impede rotational flow without interfering with radial
or longitudinal flow.
• A simple and effective baffling is attained by installing vertical strips perpendicular to the
wall of the tank.
• Except in very large tanks, four baffles are sufficient to prevent swirling and vortex
formation.
• For turbines, the width of the baffle need be no more than one-twelth of the vessel diameter;
for propellers, no more than one-eighteenth the tank diameter is needed.
• Once the swirling is stopped, the specific flow pattern in the vessel depends on the type of
impeller.
• Propellers are used when strong vertical currents are desired, e.g., when heavy solid
particles are to be kept in suspension (<50 P).
• Pitched-blade turbines with 45° down-thrusting
blades are also used to provide strong axial
flow for suspension of solids. baffling
Draft tubes
• The return flow to an impeller of any type
approaches the impeller from all directions,
because it is not under the control of solid
surfaces
• When the direction and velocity of flow to
the suction of the impeller are to be
controlled, draft tubes are used, as shown in
Figure
• Draft tubes for propellers are mounted around the impeller, and those for
turbines are mounted immediately above the impeller
Standard Turbine Design (shape factors)
D N
2
N '
= a
Re
For part (a), for equal mass transfer, n = 2/3 in Eq. (3.4-10):
2/3 2/3
1 1
N 2 = N1 = (1.50) = 1.175 rev/s (70.5 rpm)
R 1.442
➢ Using Eq (3.4-1)
P2 = N p N D = (5)(929)(1.175) (0.880)
3
2
5
a2
3 5