Scaling Laws for Reduced-Scale Tests of Pulse Jet Mixing Systems in Non-Newtonian Slurries: Mixing Cavern Behavior

The Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) under construction at the Hanford Site will use pulse jet mixer (PJM) technology for mixing and gas retention control applications in tanks expected to contain waste slurries exhibiting a non-Newtonian rheology. This paper presents the results of theoretical and experimental studies undertaken to establish a methodology to perform reduced-scale mixing tests with PJM systems in non-Newtonian fluids. A theoretical model for mixing cavern formation from steady and pulsed jets is developed and compared with data from a single unsteady jet in a yield stress simulant. Dimensional analysis is used to identify the important dimensionless parameters affecting mixing performance in more complex systems. Scaling laws are proposed based on the modeling and dimensional analysis. Experimental validation of the scaling laws governing unsteady jet mixing in non-Newtonian fluids are also presented. Tests were conducted at three scales using two non-Newtonian simulants. The data were compared non-dimensionally, and the important scale laws were confirmed. The key dimensionless parameters were found to be the Strouhal number (which describes unsteady pulse jet mixer operation), the yield Reynolds number (which governs cavern formation due to non-Newtonian fluid behavior), and the viscous Reynolds number (which determines the flow regime and the degree of turbulence). The experimentally validated scaling laws provide the basis for reduced scale testing of prototypic WTP mixing systems. It is argued that mixing systems developed from reduced scale testing will produce conservative designs at full scale