Experimental and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) studies on mixing characteristics of a modified helical ribbon impeller

Experimental and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling studies have been performed on mixing characteristics of a new modified helical ribbon impeller in a viscous medium. A novel arrangement for the multiple reference frame (MRF) technique was proposed and the modeling results were compared with those of conventional MRF selecting method. Calculations were performed to study the effects of several parameters: axial flow number, axial circulation time, impeller clearance, and power consumption. The higher performance of the modified impeller has been proven in terms of axial flow number and axial circulation time. The results showed that significant improvement in mixing performance can be obtained at a higher impeller clearance with the modified impeller employed. In addition, the power consumption by the new impeller has been compared with that of the classic one. The CFD-predicted flow patterns generated by the impellers were used to explain the higher performance of the modified impeller. In addition, the results reveal that the CFD-predicted particle volume fractions at various axial distances from the tank bottom are reasonably in agreement with the experimental observations.