Numerical Analysis on the Vortex Pattern and Flux Particle Dispersion in KR Method Using MPS Method

The mechanically-stirring vessel is widely used in many fields, such as chemical reactor, bioreactor, and metallurgy, etc. The type of vortex mode that formed during impeller stirring has great effect on stirring efficiency, chemical reacting rate and air entrapment. Many efforts have been made to numerically simulate the fluid flow in the stirring vessel with classical Eulerian method. However, it is difficult to directly investigate the vortex mode and flux particle dispersion. Therefore, moving particle semi-implicit (MPS) method, which is based on Lagrangian method, is applied to simulate the fluid flow in a KR method in this practice. Top height and bottom heights of vortex surface in a steady state under several rotation speed was taken as key parameters to compare the results of numerical and published results. Flux particle dispersion behaviour under a rotation speed range from 80 to 480 rpm was also compared with the past study. The result shows that the numerical calculation has high consistency with experimental results. It is confirmed that the calculation using MPS method well reflected the vortex mode and flux particle dispersion in a mechanically-stirring vessel. (paper)