Investigation of the Role of Impeller Structural Parameters on Liquid–Liquid Mixing Characteristics in Stirred Tanks

Abstract

Liquid–liquid mixings in stirred tanks are commonly found in many industries. In this study, we performed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling and simulation to investigate the liquid–liquid mixing behavior. Furthermore, the population balance model (PBM) was used to characterize the droplet size distribution. The PBM model parameters were calibrated using the experimental data of droplet sizes at different agitation speeds. Additionally, we employed the steady-state Sauter mean droplet size to validate the developed CFD–PBM coupled model at different dispersion phase holdups. Then, the validated CFD–PBM coupled model was employed to evaluate the role of impeller structural parameters on the liquid–liquid mixing efficiency based on a user-defined mixing index. It was found that the position of impellers significantly affects the mixing efficiency, and an increase in stirring speed and the number of impellers improved the mixing efficiency.