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Comparing top entry versus side entry agitator performance in low viscosity blending
Author(s) -
Kehn Richard Oliver
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the canadian journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1939-019X
pISSN - 0008-4034
DOI - 10.1002/cjce.20580
Subject(s) - agitator , baffle , viscosity , materials science , reynolds number , yield (engineering) , composite material , mechanics , mechanical engineering , engineering , physics , turbulence
The primary purpose of this study was to quantify the difference in performance of side entering versus top entering agitators in low viscosity blending on the lab scale. This study compared the power requirement of top entry versus side entry agitator set ups to yield the same blend time. A 1.22 m diameter clear vessel was used for the testing and several top entry set ups (0.15–0.3 D / T with three wall baffles) were compared to a single side entry set up (0.09 D / T with no wall baffles). Blend time was recorded for each run using three to four conductivity probes with water as the base fluid and a saturated sodium chloride solution as the tracer. Results show that a side entering agitator requires between three and five times the power to yield the same blend time as a top entering agitator. This ratio of powers is strongly related to the D / T chosen. In the future, additional work will be completed, which will include the effect of multiple side entry agitators on blend time and the effect of viscosity (i.e., lower Reynolds numbers) on blend time.