Flow pattern, mixing

Suppose now that a pilot-plant or full-scale reactor has been built and operated. How can its performance be used to confirm the kinetic and transport models and to improve future designs Reactor analysis begins with an operating reactor and seeks to understand several interrelated aspects of actual performance kinetics, flow patterns, mixing, mass transfer, and heat transfer. This chapter is concerned with the analysis of flow and mixing processes and their interactions with kinetics. It uses residence time theory as the major tool for the analysis. 

Mixed beds are defined by their non-linear flow patterns (mixed, agitated, turbulent) of the solid phase (see Figure 26C and F) through the conversion system. These type of fuel beds have never been classified in the literature, as far as the authors know. However, it is well known that the fuel bed can be mixed [37] (Figure 38). 

With a US homogenizer, the flow pattern of the liquid depends on the distance from the horn tip. Since flow pattern (mixing) is the physical effect of US irradiation, any change in the flow pattern due to horn immersion may affect the crystallization rate. There is an optimal, specific horn immersion depth for each US device and irradiated medium which must be established experimentally on a case by case basis. 

In the present La Porte reactor (Figure 2) the basic flow pattern is an upflow at the center and downflow at the walls. This type of a flow pattern mixes the product with the reactants at the bottom of the reactor and causes poorer production of products. 

The flow pattern, mixing characteristics and heat transfer performance of this combined impeller were studied on the basis of laboratory cold simulation tests. The results were expected to form the foundation for the development of the combined impeller. The equation of the power munber and the heat transfer coefficient were obtained by experiment. Factors affecting the mixing time and segregation index were analysed. 8 refs. 

Fresh butane mixed with recycled gas encounters freshly oxidized catalyst at the bottom of the transport-bed reactor and is oxidized to maleic anhydride and CO during its passage up the reactor. Catalyst densities (80 160 kg/m ) in the transport-bed reactor are substantially lower than the catalyst density in a typical fluidized-bed reactor (480 640 kg/m ) (109). The gas flow pattern in the riser is nearly plug flow which avoids the negative effect of backmixing on reaction selectivity. Reduced catalyst is separated from the reaction products by cyclones and is further stripped of products and reactants in a separate stripping vessel. The reduced catalyst is reoxidized in a separate fluidized-bed oxidizer where the exothermic heat of reaction is removed by steam cods. The rate of reoxidation of the VPO catalyst is slower than the rate of oxidation of butane, and consequently residence times are longer in the oxidizer than in the transport-bed reactor. 

Macromixing is estabflshed by the mean convective flow pattern. The flow is divided into different circulation loops or zones created by the mean flow field. The material is exchanged between zones, increasing homogeneity. Micromixing, on the other hand, occurs by turbulent diffusion. Each circulation zone is further divided into a series of back-mixed or plug flow cells between which complete intermingling of molecules takes place. 

Fig. 25. Flow patterns in jet mixed tanks where represents 2ones that are poody mixed (a) side entry and (b) axial.

FIG. 6-39 Typical stirred tank configurations, showing time-averaged flow patterns for axial flow and radial flow impellers. From Oldshue, Fluid Mixing Technology, McGraw-Hill, New Yo7 k, 1983.)... 

In another land of ideal flow reactor, all portions of the feed stream have the same residence time that is, there is no mixing in the axial direction but complete mixing radially. It is called a.plugflow reactor (PFR), or a tubular flow reactor (TFR), because this flow pattern is characteristic of tubes and pipes. As the reaction proceeds, the concentration falls off with distance. 

Mixing of two saturated streams at different temperatures. This is commonly seen in the plume from a stack. Since vapor pressure is an exponential function of temperature, the resultant mixture of two saturated streams will be supersaturated at the mixed temperature. Uneven flow patterns and cooling in heat exchangers make this route to supersaturation difficult to prevent. 

There are three types of mixing flow patterns that are markedly different. The so-called axial-flow turbines (Fig. 18-3) actually give a flow coming off the impeller of approximately 45°, and therefore have a recirculation pattern coming back into the impeller at the hub region of the blades. This flow pattern exists to an approximate Reynolds number of 200 to 600 and then becomes radial as the Reynolds number decreases. Both the RlOO and A200 impellers normally require four baffles for an effective flow pattern. These baffles typically are V12 of the tank diameter and width. 

Jet Mixers Continuous recycle of the contents of a tank through an external pump so arranged that the pump discharge stream appropriately reenters the vessel can result in a flow pattern in the tank which will produce a slow mixing aciion [Fossett, Trans. Jnst. Chem. Eng., 29,322 (1951)]. 

Axial-flow turbines are often used in blendiug pseudoplastic materials, and they are often used at relatively large D/T ratios, from 0.5 to 0.7, to adequately provide shear rate in the majority of the batch particularly in pseudoplastic material. These impellers develop a flow pattern which may or may not encompass an entire tank, and these areas of motion are sometimes referred to as caverns. Several papers describe the size of these caverns relative to various types of mixing phenomena. An effec tive procedure for the blending of pseudoplastic fluids is given in Oldshue (op. cit.). 

Pickiug up the solids at the bottom of the tank depends upon the eddies and velocity fluctuations in the lower part of the tank and is a different criterion from the flow pattern required to keep particles suspended and moving in various velocity patterns throughout the remainder of the vessel This leads to the variables in the design equation and a relationship that is quite different when these same variables are studied in relation to complete uniformity throughout the mixing vessel. 

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