MIXING IN ANCHOR AGITATED VESSELS

Flow patterns and velocity profiles have been studied in anchor agitated vessels. The flow paths around the mixer blade in a Newtonian fluid may be characterized satisfactorily in terms of the blade tip Reynolds number and the blade width/wall clearance ratio. Calculations of the dispersion produced by the blade within a horizontal plane are not in agreement with experimentally determined (and therefore three‐dimensional) mixing times. This suggests that the vertical secondary flow is the more important mixing mechanism. Such vertical flows are shown to be more pronounced in visco‐elastic systems and the horizontal plane velocity profiles are substantially modified. A mechanism is suggested for this. Copyright © 1969 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering