Mass transfer and hydrodynamic characteristics of gas inducing type of agitated contactors

Power consumption, rate of gas induction (Q), fractional gas hold-up and mass transfer characteristics of 0.41, 0.57 and 1.0 m i.d. gas inducing type of agitated contactors were studied. The power consumption was measured by a torque table. The values of effective interfacial area (a), and liquid side mass transfer coefficient (k_La) were obtained by using chemical methods. Two types of impellers (pipe and flattened cylindrical) were employed. The impeller speed was varied from 3 to 11.7 r/s. The effects of impeller diameter, baffle position, orifice area on the impeller, number of impeller blades, position of impeller from the bottom and liquid submergence on the values of Q and a were investigated. Further, the effect of liquid viscosity and surface tension on the values of Q was studied. A satisfactory agreement was found between the observed and the predicted value of the minimum impeller speed at which gas induction occurs. The performance of the gas inducing type of agitated contactor has been compared with the conventional mechanically agitated contactor.     

Onset of gas induction and power consumption in an agitated tank having shortened narrower baffles

The onset speed of gas induction and the power consumption after gas induction were studied in a gas-induced type agitated tank. In such an agitated tank, four unique baffles which were shorter and narrower than the conventional ones were adopted. Two 45° downward pitched blade turbines (PBT) in series were used as impellers. Gas induction could be formed by the dual impellers operated above the onset impeller speed. Several geometric factors and operation parameters were considered by theoretical aspects and the dimensionless analysis to study the onset of gas induction and the power consumption. In all experiments, air and tap water were used as working fluids. Results revealed that a lower agitation speed and less power consumption were needed for the present tank than a narrower full-length baffled agitated tank. In the present tank, the least specific power consumption was found when the liquid level was about 1·9 times the tank diameter. Two correlation equations were obtained to predict, respectively, the onset speed of gas induction and the power consumption after gas induction. Comparison between the present type and various other gas-inducing type agitated tanks were also discussed. © 1998 SCI     

Effects of Geometrical Factors on Liquid Mixing in a Gas-Induced Agitated Tank

An agitated tank having two 45° pitched blade downward turbines in series and four thin baffles which were narrower than the conventional ones was studied. At higher impeller speeds, a gas and liquid vortex induces the gas above the liquid surface vertically downward into the turbines, which in turn cuts the gas stream into bubbles which then circulate in the liquid. Consequently gas-induction increases the gas utilization ratio as well as simplifying the ancillary equipment otherwise required to recycle the escaped gas. The relationship between tank geometrical factors and the liquid mixing time was also investigated. The experimental variables investigated were the impeller speed, the baffle width, the turbine diameter, the space between two impellers, the liquid level, and the clearance between the lower turbine and the bottom of the tank. The results showed that all but the clearance between the lower turbine and the bottom of the tank had significant effects on the mixing time under normal gas-induction, revealing results in contrast to the conventional agitated tank. © 1997 SCI.     

充气条件下多层桨悬浮颗粒的临界转速

在直径为386 mm 的通气多层桨搅拌釜中,实验考察了下层搅拌桨型、挡板和气体分布器等对颗粒悬浮临界搅拌转速的影响,这对工业过程的设计和放大具有一定的指导意义.     

Power Consumption in Gas‐Liquid Contactors Agitated by Double‐Stage Rushton Turbines

The dependence of power consumption on impeller spacing in unaerated and aerated gas‐liquid contactors agitated by dual Rushton turbine systems was studied, and the gas flow rate and viscosity effects were measured in relation to these parameters. The experiments were carried out in a 0.19 m i.d. vessel stirred by two Rushton turbines with a diameter d = 0.10 m; with blade length and blade height 0.25 d and 0.2 d, respectively. In tap water the impellers acted independently for spacings greater than 1.65 d, while in glycerol solutions the two impellers already acted independently at an impeller spacing equal to 1.2 d. In aerated systems, a notable increase in the power consumption with increasing impeller spacing could be detected for small gas flow rates and low viscosities, while a decrease in the Newton number with increasing Froude number could be observed at constant impeller spacing. The Newton number was not affected by flow number at high viscosity values.     

具有双层桨结构的自吸式搅拌反应器的流体力学性能

在直径0.48 m的搅拌槽中以水?空气为介质,对具有双层桨结构的自吸式反应器的流体力学性能进行了实验研究,考察了自吸式桨浸没深度、底层桨结构和搅拌桨层间距对自吸式桨的临界吸气转速、吸气速率和气含率的影响。结果表明,临界吸气转速随自吸式桨浸没深度增加而增加,临界吸气转速几乎与下层桨的结构无关;吸气速率与气含率随浸没深度增加而减小,吸气速率与气含率受下层桨影响较大,层间距为自吸式桨直径(D)且采用上推式的四叶宽叶翼形轴流式桨作下层桨时,自吸式桨的吸气性能最佳。     

A novel design for a gas-inducing impeller at the lowest critical speed

To disperse the unreacted overhead gas phase into the liquid in an agitated reactor without gas outlet, a gas-inducing impeller is usually employed. To determine the lowest critical rotating speed, the gas-induction mechanism was reconsidered by constituting a mechanical energy conservation equation between the gas inlet orifice in the gas phase and the gas outlet orifice in the liquid phase under a certain rotational speed. According to this model, the critical speed of the gas-inducing impeller could be basically determined by the submersion depth and the radial position of the gas outlet, and a novel design was proposed by introduction of six short pipes stretched radially from the axis of the impeller. The final design of the gas-inducing impeller was obtained by an optimal combination of the gas-inducing pipes, the blades of the impeller and the baffle dimension.     

Development and performance analysis of a novel agitated vessel

The objective of the present study was to design, fabricate and evaluate the performance of a novel airi-nducing impeller system with a specially designed air-inducing tube-set. The novel air-inducing impeller system, when attached to a conventional baffled agitated vessel, could convert it into an air-inducing reactor. Water was used as the working fluid and the characteristics of the impeller system such as critical speed, power consumption and gas holdup were investigated by varying the gas free liquid level, orifice immersion depth, bottom clearance and impeller speed. Results showed that this novel air-inducing impeller system induced the air at speeds lower than the critical speeds reported by most of the investigators in the literature.     

半椭圆管盘式涡轮搅拌桨气-液分散特性

在直径为0.476 m的椭圆底搅拌槽中,采用半椭圆管盘式涡轮桨,研究桨径与槽径比D/T变化(分别为0.28, 0.33, 0.4及0.5)对气液两相体系中临界分散、通气功率和气含率的影响. 结果表明,对于D/T较小的搅拌桨,采用由载气到气泛测得的泛点比气泛到载气测得的泛点明显滞后,但随D/T增大泛点滞后现象消失;在相同通气量下,D/T对相对功率需求(Pg/P0)的影响不大;功率消耗相同时,低通气量时气含率随D/T增大略有增大,但高通气量时恰好相反. 研究结果及泛点、通气功率、气含率关联式对工业气液搅拌反应器设计操作具有参考价值.     

精金矿生物氧化反应器固体悬浮及能耗研究

为了解决生物氧化反应器存在的高剪切及高能耗等问题,分别以石英砂和含砷难处理精金矿固体颗粒为研究对象,对临界离底悬浮转速Njs和功率进行研究。结果表明,Njs随着固含率的增大而增大,轴向桨Njs随通气量的增大而减小,而径向桨Njs随通气量的增大变化不大;功率随着搅拌转速的增大而增大,从釜底引气时功率会随着通气速率的增大而增大,从侧壁引气时功率则受通气速率的影响不大。     

The behaviour of gas—liquid mixtures near Rushton turbine blades

The flow in the impeller region of an agitated tank dispersing gas in liquid has been studied using a rotating TV camera and fixed still and high speed ciné cameras. The roll vortices which form behind the horizontal edges of the blades continue as trailing vortices out into the main volume of the tank. Gas bubbles are captured by the centrifugal fields of these vortices and often form stable cavities centered along the vortex core lines. Dispersion occurs primarily as a result of the turbulent closure of the tip of the cavity, when small bubbles are broken off from the main mass of gas. Gas bubbles passing through the impeller region are much more likely to be coalesced—or at least agglomerate—with these cavities than to undergo rupture by the distortion mechanisms that have usually been envisaged.     

Study of solid–liquid mixing in agitated tanks through electrical resistance tomography

Electrical resistance tomography (ERT), which is a non-intrusive flow visualization technique, was used to investigate the solid–liquid mixing in an agitated tank equipped with a top-entering axial-flow impeller. The signals obtained from eight ERT planes were utilized to reconstruct the tomograms by using the linear back projection algorithm. The ERT measurements were correlated to solid concentration profiles by which the degree of homogeneity was quantified. In this study, the effect of important parameters such as impeller type (Lightnin A100, A200, A310, and A320 impellers), impeller speed (250–800 rpm), impeller off-bottom clearance (T/5–T/2, where T is the tank diameter), particle size (210–1500 μm), and solid concentration (5–30 wt%) on the degree of homogeneity were explored. The results showed that the degree of homogeneity in the solid–liquid mixing was improved with increasing the impeller speed. However, after reaching the maximum achievable homogeneity, further increase in impeller speed was not beneficial but might be detrimental. Hence, the measurement of the optimal impeller speed as a function of operating conditions and design parameters has vital role in achieving maximum homogeneity in a solid–liquid mixing system.     

轴流桨搅拌槽内轴向流动速度的研究

为研究轴流桨搅拌槽内轴向速度的分布,在直径为300 mm的平底圆筒搅拌槽内,采用相位多普勒粒子分析仪(PDPA)对轴流式搅拌器主流区的流场进行测量。在不同转速和离底间隙条件下,对挡板前轴向时均速度在径向和轴向的分布进行分析和研究,采用壁面射流理论,建立搅拌槽内壁面射流流动模型,揭示轴向流动特性。结果表明:轴向速度沿径向的分布具有相似性;轴向最大速度沿轴向衰减;轴向流边界沿轴向线性扩展。研究结果有助于进一步了解搅拌槽内部流动特性,为固-液悬浮操作、过程放大和搅拌设备的优化设计提供理论依据。     

Influence of Floating Suspended Solids on the Homogenization of the Liquid Phase in a Mixing Vessel

The impact of floating suspended solids on the homogenization of the liquid phase in a stirred vessel was studied. The experiments were performed in a tank with an internal diameter of 0.32 m, equipped with a 45° pitched four-blade turbine (PTD) placed at varying positions in the vessel. Tap water was used as the liquid phase and polyethylene particles (PEHD) were used as the solid phase. The impeller speed was varied from N = 200–900 rpm. The mixing time of the suspended system was measured by a conductivity technique using a sodium chloride solution as the tracer, whereas power consumption was measured by the torque table. The influence of mean concentration of the suspended floating solids, average particle size, surface tension at the liquid/air interface and impeller diameter and its position on the mixing time and power consumption were analyzed.     

搅拌槽中非稳态温度场分布的研究

在对称装有4组垂直加热列管、直径为500mm的搅拌槽中使用长薄叶(CBY)桨进行搅拌,采用液晶(LC)测温技术测量搅拌槽内温度场的分布。分别研究了搅拌槽中轴向温度分布随加热时间、叶轮雷诺数以及桨的安装高度不同而变化的情况。结果表明,列管加热时间的长短对槽内温度分布的趋势没有影响,温度分布的趋势主要取决于所用搅拌桨产生的流型;随着叶轮雷诺数的增加,槽内温度分布相对趋于均匀;搅拌桨的安装高度对温度场的分布影响也很显著。     

Fractional gas hold-up in gas inducing type of mechanically agitated contactors

Fractional gas hold up was measured in gas inducing type of mechanically agitated contactors (GIMAC) with single and multiple impellers. Three vessels of 0.57, 1.0 and 1.5 m i.d. were used. For the multiple impeller system, six different impeller designs were employed. The impeller speed was varied in the range of 0.30 to 15.45 s^?1. The ratio of impeller diameter to tank diameter (D/T), the submergence (S) of the upper impeller, the clearance of the lower impeller from the tank bottom (C₁) and the impeller spacing (C₃) were varied over a wide range. The design of the lower impeller was optimized in terms of diameter (D), blade width (W), blade angle (Bø), number of blades (n_b) and the blade thickness (t_b). An optimum design has been proposed for the multiple impeller system. Rational correlations have been proposed.     

高效带钩圆盘和带钩窄叶桨的优化

通过固体颗粒和水的混合物在搅拌器中进行搅拌 ,使固体颗粒粉碎至一定粒度 ,研究了搅拌桨的形状、宽度、是否采用流线型以及桨径与槽径比、桨叶层数对粉碎效果和搅拌功率的影响 ,得出了减小桨叶宽度并采用流线型叶片可以节省能耗和适当加大搅拌叶轮的直径和层数可以省时的结论。介绍了优化后的带钩圆盘桨和带钩窄叶桨的形状、尺寸比例关系和在湍流状态下全挡板时的搅拌功率准数和功率准数修正系数。     

Experimental and numerical study of gas hold-up in surface aerated stirred tanks

Although the distribution of gas hold-up in stirred tanks is a key factor to their design and operation, systematic experimental data on local gas hold-up of surface-aerated stirred tanks are not available in open literature. In this work, turbulent two-phase flow in a surface aeration stirred tank with a diameter of 0.380 m was investigated experimentally and numerically. The gas hold-up was measured with a conductance probe at various operating conditions. A surface baffle to improve the efficiency of surface aeration of a Rushton disk turbine was designed and tested. The experimental data suggest that the gas hold-up distribution in the surface aeration tank is very non-uniform, and the surface baffle improves the aeration rate particularly at a high agitation speed. A three-dimensional in-house computational fluid dynamic (CFD) two-fluid model with the standard k?A_p turbulence model was used to predict the gas-liquid flow, and the impeller region was handled using the improved inner-outer iterative procedure. Based on Kolmogoroff's theory of isotropic turbulence, a constitutive equation for surface aeration strength was proposed. The numerical prediction, in combination with the measurements, gives insight to the surface aeration performance of stirred tanks. It was found that the simulation reasonably predicted the gas hold-up distribution in the upper tank, but underestimated it in the region below the stirrer.     

LIQUID PHASE MIXING IN MECHANICALLY AGITATED VESSELS

Liquid phase mixing and power consumption have been studied in 0.3, 0.57, 1.0 and 1.5 m i.d. mechanically agitated contactors. Tap water was used as liquid phase. The impeller speed was varied in the range 2-13.33 r/s. Three types of impellers namely disc turbine (DT), pitched turbine downflow (PTD) and pitched turbine upflow (PTU) were employed. The impeller diameter to vessel diameter ratio was varied in the range of 0.25 to 0.58. The effect of impeller clearance from tank bottom was also studied. Mixing time was measured using the transient conductivity measurement.

The PTD impeller was found to be the most energy efficient for mixing in liquid phase alone. Further, PTD (T/3) was found to be most energy efficient as compared with other impeller diameters. The effect of clearance was found to be design dependent and it was found to be diameter dependent in the case of pitched turbines.

Flow patterns of different impellers have been studied by visual observations (using guide particles). These observations were supported by the measurements using Laser Doppler Velocimetry. A model has been developed for the prediction of mixing time. In the case of all the three impeller designs, a fairly good agreement was found between the predicted and experimental values of mixing time.     

气液搅拌槽中不同因素对旋涡深度的影响

搅拌反应釜中心的大旋涡对物料的传质传热有重大影响。以液体石蜡通入氮气的搅拌体系为对象,通过控制变量分别研究了搅拌桨型、转速、挡板插入深度和进气流量对中心大旋涡深度的影响。实验结果表明,六叶片圆盘涡轮引起的旋涡最深。向容器中缓慢插入挡板,旋涡变浅,当挡板经过搅拌桨叶附近时,旋涡深度减小较快。在一定的进气流量范围内,进气流量越大,旋涡越浅。分析了实验结果和上述因素影响旋涡深度的机理。