Flow Visualization of Perforated Baffles and Impellers for Stirred Tank Reactor with Single Stage Rushton Turbine

Abstract

Implementing the perforated baffles and impellers in stirred tank believe will influence the flow characteristic inside the stirred tank. Hence in present study, a new concept of baffles and impellers which used a perforated design was proposed in a stirred tank to predict the fluid flow patterns and study an effectiveness of the new design in term of mixing performance. In order to investigate the kinds of flow properties, a Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique with 1 µm seeding particle was used. Four configuration were tested which are normal baffles and normal impellers, normal baffles and perforated impellers, perforated baffles and normal impellers, and the last configuration is perforated baffles and perforated impellers. The result show that the fluid concentration on baffles were reducing significantly when the perforated baffles applied in the stirred tank. On the other side, high concentration of seeding particles occurred when normal baffles used while the concentration just above the normal impellers was reduced by the usage of perforated impellers. From the results, it was shows that the perforated design can give a certain level of mixing efficiency in stirred tank. The PIV technique also gives good flow visualization in other to determine the flow pattern in stirred tank with a new concept of baffles and impellers.