Active Mixing Strategies for Confined

Impinging Jets
M Ashar Sultan, Ertugrul Erkoç, Ricardo J. Santos,
Madalena M. Dias, José C. Lopes
 Active Mixing Strategies for Confined Impinging
Jets

1. Confined Impinging Jets (CIJ)

¾ Description of Reaction Injection Moulding
(RIM) Process

2. Characterization of the Flow

3. Effect of Pulsation Technology in RIM
Working of RIM Process
Typical RIM Machine
High speed jet streams having
velocities up to 100m/s
Due to the high viscosities of
Typical Dimensions
monomers
3 ≤ D ≤ 15 mm
100 < Re < 500
1 ≤ d ≤ 3 mm
15 ≤ H ≤ 75 mm
 Active Mixing Strategies for Confined Impinging Jets

1. Confined Impinging Jets (CIJ)

¾ Description of Reaction Injection Moulding (RIM)
Process

2. Characterization of the Flow

3. Effect of Pulsation Technology in RIM
 Characterization of Flow
The existence of two flow regimes on RIM were early reported
(Malguarnera and Suh,1977, Lee, et al., 1980) :

Exsistence of two different

flow regime
Segregated Flow
Chaotic Flow
Characterization of Flow - CFD
 Characterization of Flow

Flow regime mainly depends on:

Re Number
Momentum Ratio

d inj vinj ρ ρv S 2

Re = M = 1 1 1

μ ρvS
R

2
2

2 2

At low Re there is no turbulence generation, and mixing can

only be driven from complex chaotic flow patterns, chaotic
mixing
 Characterization of Flow
To establish chaotic mixing conditions:

1. Re of jets should be above a critical value of 120

(Malguarnera and Suh,1977 , Lee et al., 1980, Tucker and Suh 1980,
Wood et al. 1991, Johnson and Wood 2000 and Teixeira et al.2005)
2. Momentum ratio should be 1
 Active Mixing Strategies for Confined Impinging Jets

1. Confined Impinging Jets (CIJ)

¾ Description of Reaction Injection Moulding (RIM)
Process

2. Characterization of the Flow

3. Effect of Pulsation Technology in RIM
 Effect of Pulsation Technology in RIM

Aim
1. The effect of feed streams pulsation on the
flow dynamics in CIJ
2. Different frequencies and Amplitude is
studied
Effect of Pulsation Technology in RIM

CFD-Model
1. Flow field simulated with Fluent using
a 2D model of the CIJ
2. Dynamic Simulation started from
steady state solution with Re = 300
3. Pulsation of the jet is performed using
the equation

Vinj (t )l = Vinj + AlVinjSin(2πft )

Vinj (t ) r = Vinj + ArVinjSin(2πft + ϕ )
 Results
Case Number Pulsation Strategy
1 No Pulsation
2 Only one jet is pulsed
3 On-Phase
4 Out-of-Phase
5 Out-of-Phase
6 Out-of-Phase
7 Out-of-Phase
8 Out-of-Phase
φ = 200 Hz
Amplitude and Frequency
A=0
Al = 0.50 , f = φ
Al = Ar = 0.50 , f = φ , ϕ = 0
Al = Ar = 0.25 , f = φ , ϕ = π
Al = Ar = 0.50 , f = φ , ϕ = π
Al = Ar = 1.00 , f = φ , ϕ = π
Al = Ar = 0.50 , f = 2φ , ϕ = π
Al = Ar = 0.50 , f = φ/2 , ϕ = π
 Results
¾ Vortices in Cases 2 and 3 one side
oscillation and on-phase oscillation, are
Case 1 Case 2 more distorted, less rounded, than the
case of no pulsation.
¾ With out-of-phase pulsation present

greater regularity of the vortex street,

Case 3 Case 4
namely Cases 4, 5, 6 and 8 except for
Case 7, where pulsation frequency is 2φ
¾ Earlier formation of the fully
Case 5 Case 6
developed vortices at the impingement
point clearly observed for Case 8

Case 7 Case 8
 Results
Case Number Max Energy, m
1 0.00843
¾ For Case 1, where there is no pulsation
2 0.0247
3
applied to the system, typical frequency
0.00168
4
of the jets oscillations is much smaller
0.0571
5 than for the cases with forced pulsation
0.0530
6 0.583 ¾ On-phase pulsation case 3 presents
7 0.000921 lowest energy
8 0.894 * ¾ Out-of-phase provide highest energy
2.00E-02 and mostly , mostly the ones with the
1.80E-02
1.60E-02
highest amplitudes.
1.40E-02
¾ Case 7 Lowest energy peaks is obtained
at 2φ both interact and cancel high
1.20E-02
Gxx(m)

1.00E-02
8.00E-03
6.00E-03 energy peak above 100Hz
Highest energy peaks is obtained at φ / 2
4.00E-03
2.00E-03 ¾
0.00E+00
0 100 200 300 400 500
resonance
f(Hz)
 Conclusions
1. Pulsation enhances the regularity of the system which results in a clear
oscillatory behaviour of the jets at the impingement point.
2. With values close to the natural frequency of the fully developed vortices,
pulsation can force the frequency of the fully developed vortices passage
and make it more orderly
3. Lower amplitudes can not impose to the system dynamics
4. Higher amplitudes, close to 100% of the flow rate, can completely
dominate the dynamics of the flow field.
5. Out-of-phase jets pulsation impose more clearly its dynamics to the
system than one side oscillation and on-phase oscillation were not able to
impose a clear influence on the flow field