In the present work, a university-industry linkage project was carried out in which the hydrodynamic performance of three existing impellers in agitated tanks in a Paint manufacturing plant of the company Axalta Coating Systems is compared. These are 45 ° inclined four vane impeller (PBT4), 35 ° inclined six vane impeller (PBT6), and Chemineer type curved tip three inclined vane high efficient impeller (HE3). For this, Computational Fluid Dynamics and experimental measurements of power consumption were used. The study was carried out in a 4-liter cylindrical tank operating in a turbulent regime (Reynolds numbers greater than 14,000) using two types of fluids; water and white coating like Newtonian fluid and slimming fluid. In all the simulations and experimental validations, geometric similarity was maintained with the existing conditions in the plant. An analysis of mesh independence was carried out, comparing meshes with an increase of twice the number of elements, in which the one with the least variability of the hydrodynamic properties with respect to the previous one was chosen. Once the independent mesh was obtained, the speed fields, the dependence of the power numbers (NP) and pumping numbers (NQ) of each of the impellers under study were obtained at different operating conditions similar to those existing in the plant. It was found that in turbulent regime for both Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluid, the power number is higher for the PBT4 impeller and the lower for the PBT6. For both fluids, the pumping number was higher for the PBT4 impeller and the lowest was obtained for the PBT6. The mixing effectiveness ratio (NQ/NP) that was found is that Chemineer's HE3 impeller has the highest value for Newtonian fluid, while for non-Newtonian fluid, the values are very similar for PBT4 and HE3 impellers. For the specific case study of this work, it was concluded that for the homogenization of a white coating manufactured in the company Axalta Coating Systems using the PBT4 and HE3 impellers they would have a very similar performance, while the PBT6 impeller would have the worst performance. Considering that the PBT4 impeller is a general purpose agitator and can be used in a large number of applications, and furthermore, it is easier to manufacture and its cost is lower, the PBT4 agitator would have a better performance than the HE3 impeller.
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