Phase distribution in a stirred tank reactor mechanically agitated by gas-inducing turbine

The experimental and the numerically studies were applied to a non-baffled laboratory-scale stirred tank reactor, mechanically agitated by a gas-inducing turbine. The dispersion of air as gas phase into isopropanol as liquid phase at room temperature under different stirrer speeds was investigated. The X-Ray cone beam tomography measurements were taken at five different stirrer speeds with thresholds of 50 rpm starting from 1000 rpm at which the gas inducement occurs for the given operating conditions.
Cone-beam type X-ray computed tomography is a potential method to measure three-dimensional phase distributions in vessels. An example for that is the measurement of gas profiles in stirred chemical reactors. However, there are considerable difficulties for accurate quantitative measurements, for instance of average gas fraction in a fluid, due to beam hardening and radiation scattering effects. We have developed a suitable measurement setup as well as calibration and software correction methods to achieve a highly accurate void fraction measurement.
The computational fluid dynamics analyses of the stirred tank reactor were performed in 3D with CFX 10.0 numerical software. Five steady state simulations, at stirrer speeds corresponding to the ones at which the measurements were performed, were conducted to be compared with the experimental observations. The tetrahedral mesh with above 1500000 elements was globally refined since a detailed view in the whole geometry is required. The inhomogeneous two-phase flow model with the particle transport model was applied to the system with momentum transfer described by the drag force and turbulence transfer modelled by Sato enhanced eddy viscosity model. The gas phase was modelled as dispersed fluid and the liquid phase as continuous fluid. Different turbulence models and their suitability were considered in the simulations.