ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Prediction of liquid-liquid flow in an SMX static mixer using large eddy simulations

Paulina Pianko-Oprych and Zdzisław Jaworski

Faculty of Chemical Engineering, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Al. Piastow 42, 71-065 Szczecin, Poland

E-mail: Paulina.Pianko@zut.edu.pl

Received: 21 April 2009  Revised: 19 October 2009  Accepted: 22 October 2009

Abstract: The main purpose of the paper is to apply the large eddy simulations (LES) technique and to verify its use as a predicting tool for turbulent liquid-liquid flow in an SMX static mixer. LES modeling was carried out using the Smagorinsky-Lilly model of the turbulent subgrid viscosity for the Reynolds number of 5000 and 10000. The continuous phase was water and the dispersed phase was silicon oil. The investigation covers the effects of the density ratio between the phases. Three different cases of liquid densities were considered. The dispersed phase concentration distribution in the mixer cross-sections was compared with the corresponding time averaged results obtained formerly for the same configuration in a steady-state simulation using the standard RANS approach with the k-ɛ model. The dependency of the standard deviation of the dispersed phase concentration on the distance from the mixer inlet and the impact of the centrifugal force on the phase concentration distribution were investigated. The presented results for the SMX static mixer confirm conclusions of previous studies by Jaworski et al. (2006) obtained for a Kenics static mixer and show less a pronounced influence of the centrifugal force on the phase concentration distribution of the LES results in comparison to the RANS case.

Keywords: large eddy simulations - liquid-liquid flow - SMX static mixer - CFD

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.2478/s11696-009-0112-9

Chemical Papers 64 (2) 203–212 (2010)