Pressure drop of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids across a Sulzer SMX static mixer

This paper presents an experimental study of the pressure drop across a Sulzer SMX static mixer with both Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids. The extensive experiments were performed under varying operating conditions: the fluid flowrate (2.78 x 10(-6) to 1.11 x 10(-4) m(3)s(-1)), the number of mixing elements aligned in series (6 to 18) and the wall temperature of the static mixer (293 to 363 K). It was found that adequate design correlations gathering perfectly all 397 experimental data points can be proposed over a wide range of a generalized Reynolds number: 0.08 less than or equal to Re-g less than or equal to 10000. These correlations compare favourably with previous work and extend significantly the investigated range of flow regimes. Finally, it was shown that the enhancement of fluid mixing is achieved by a pressure drop penalty up to 23 with respect to an empty tube.