Jet mixing long horizontal storage tanks

Large storage tanks may require mixing to achieve homogeneity of contents for several reasons: prior to sampling for mass balance purposes, for blending in reagents, for suspending settled solids for removal, or for use as a feed tank to a process. At ORNL, mixed waste evaporator concentrates are stored in 50,000-gal tanks, about 12 ft in diameter and 60 ft long. This tank configuration has the advantage of permitting transport by truck and therefore fabrication in the shop rather than in the field. Jet mixing experiments were carried out on two model tanks: a 230-gal (1/6-linear-scale) Plexiglas tank and a 25,000-gal tank (about 2/3 linear scale). Mixing times were measured using sodium chloride tracer and several conductivity probes distributed through the tanks. Several jet sizes and configurations were tested. One-directional and two-directional jets were tested in both tanks. Mixing times for each tank were correlated with the jet Reynolds number. Mixing times were correlated for the two tank sizes using the recirculation time for the developed jet. When the recirculation times were calculated using the distance from the nozzle to the end of the tank as the length of the developed jet, the correlation was only marginally successful. Data for the two tank sizes were correlated empirically using a modified effective jet length expressed as a function of the Reynolds number raised to the 1/3 power. Mixing experiments were simulated using the TEMTEST computer program. The simulations predicted trends correctly and were within the scatter of the experimental data with the lower jet Reynolds numbers. Agreement was not as good at high Reynolds numbers except for single nozzles in the 25,000-gal tank, where agreement was excellent over the entire range