Flow regimes and surface air entrainment in partially filled stirred vessels for

different fill ratios

Abstract

In many industrial applications, stirred vessels have a liquid height-to-tank diameter ratio (fill ratio), H/T, equal to,
or larger than, 1. However, there are many instances when H/To1, as when a vessel is emptied or filled.

1.Introduction

Mixing of liquids and dispersed-phase systems in mixing tanks and reactors stirred by a
centrally mounted impeller is a very common operation encountered in the pharmaceutical
industry as well as in many other industries. [1]

2. Background

Modifying the fill ratio H/T can, in principle, have an impact on some of the macroscopic
flow characteristics in the mixing system, such as flow regimes, as well as other key process
variables such as power dissipation by the impeller and impeller pumping rate. One of the most
important variables in the description of mixing phenomena is the power P dissipated by the
impeller and the non-dimensional Power Number, Po, defined as: [2]
P
p0 = (1)
ρ N3 D5

3. Experimental apparatus, materials and methods

3.1. Mixing system

The experimental apparatus used in this work, shown in Fig. 1, consisted of a baffled,
cylindrical, transparent, Plexiglas mixing tank with a flat bottom, having an internal diameter, T
equal to 0.246 m. [3]

Fig. 1. Schematic of experimental set-up of agitation system

3.2. Experimental determination of the impeller power dissipation and Power Number

The motor was mounted on a steel framework separate from the tank (Fig. 1) to minimize
vibrations that could have affect torque measurement. The same instrument could also measure

1
the agitation speed, N, and then internally calculate and display the instantaneous power
delivered, P, by the shaft, according to Brown et al. (2004): [3]
P=2 πNT (2)

4. Numerical simulation method

Numerical simulations of the velocity distribution and turbulence levels in the tank were
conducted using a commercial pre-CFD mesh generator (Gambit 2.4.6) coupled with a CFD
software package. [4]
Volume of fluid (VOF) method: The VOF method can model the location of two
immiscible fluids (or phases) by solving a single set of momentum equations and tracking the
volume fraction of each of the fluids throughout the domain . [5]

5. Results and discussion

The most common configuration for stirred vessels is the one in which H/T¼1, and
C¼T/3 (Sb/D¼2.23). [6]
This eliminated any periodic effects caused by the impeller position. Fig. 2 presents the
dimensionless mean axial and radial velocities obtained by CFD and PIV at three different axial
levels, i.e., below the impeller (Z/T¼0.14), above the impeller (Z/T¼0.38) and in the impeller
region (Z/T¼0.33). This figure show that there was, in general, good agreement between the
experimental data and the predicted results for the velocity distribution, and that the velocity
profiles predicted using both turbulence models (SKE and RKE) were similar to each other,
although those obtained with the RKE model were in slightly better agreement with the
experimental measurements. [6]
Therefore, the impeller Pumping Number, NQ and the impeller radial Pumping Number,
NQr were expected to be the same. Tables 1 present a summary of the results for Po . [6]
Table 1
Power Numbers for H¼T, D/T¼0.31 and Cb/T¼0.30.
Source Po
Torque measurements (this work) 4.89
FS-SKE CFD simulation (this work) 4.66
FS-RKE CFD simulation (this work) 4.74
Literature data 4.4–5.5

Z/T=0.33
Ur/Urip

0.8
0.7
0.6 PIV Measurements
0.5 FS-RKE CFD Simu-
lations
0.4
FS-SKE CFD Simu-
0.3 lations
0.2
0.1
0
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 r/R
0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9

2
Fig. 2. Comparison between PIV experimental results and CFD predictions of radial velocities (left-hand side
panels) and axial velocities (right-hand side panels) using both standard k–e (SKE) and realizable k–e (RKE) on
three different horizontal iso-surfaces at different vertical locations for Cb/T¼0.30, D/T¼0.31 and N¼300 rpm.

Vortex phenomena in stirred vessels are usually interpreted based on the Froude Number
defined as: [7]
N2 D
F r= (3)
g
Therefore, the Po data are reported here as a function of the Fr at the corresponding N
(0.022, 0.087, 0.195, 0.347 and 0.542, respectively), and are presented in Fig. 3. This figure
shows that for impeller submergence ratios at, or higher than, the critical level (i.e., for
Sb/D¼0.77 and 0.98; DL Regime), Po remained constant when the agitation speed, and hence Fr,
increased. However, for lower impeller submergence ratios associated with SL-up Regime
(Sb/D¼0.59 and 0.46), two operating regions corresponding to different levels of power
reduction could be observed. [8]

Increasing N
6

3
Po

0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Fr
Sd/D=0.98
Sd/D=0.77
Sd/D=0.59

Fig. 3. Power Number as a function of Froude Number for different Sb/D ratios (Cb/T¼0.30 and D/T¼0.31).

6. Conclusions
The following conclusions can be drawn from this work:
1. The CFD predictions of the velocity components, Power Numbers, and Pumping Numbers
obtained in this work for a
conventional stirred vessel (H/T¼1 and C¼T/3), were in significant agreement with
experimental measurements obtained
here and with data available in the literature (Poffi5; NQffi0.8).
2. The impeller submergence ratio Sb/D, which is a linear function of the H/T ratio for a fixed
impeller off-bottom clearance,
can play a critical role on the flow regimes produced in stirred
vessels when H/To1.

3
 Nomenclature

H/T fill ratio, dimensionless

Po Power Number, dimensionless
P instantaneous power dissipated by the impeller, (J s^(-1))
N agitation speed, (rpm)
D impeller diameter, (m)
T tank diameter, (m)
Sb impeller submergence (distance from bottom of the impeller blades to the air–liquid interface),
(m)
Sb/D impeller submergence ratio, dimensionless
Cb/T Impeller off-bottom clearance ratio, dimensionless
NQ Pumping Number or Flow Number, dimensionless
N Qr radial Pumping Number, dimensionless
Fr Froude Number, dimensionless
U tip velocity at the tip of the impeller, (m s^(-1))
Greek letters
r liquid density, (kg m^(-3))

References

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