Numerical investigation on mixing characteristics of floating and sinking particles in a stirred tank with fractal impellers

Abstract The hydrodynamics of floating and sinking particles mixing process in a stirred tank with four pitched-blade impellers and fractal impellers were investigated employing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. Axial solid concentration profile, solid concentration distribution, power consumption, trailing vortex, cloud height, water integrated velocity, just suspension speed (Njs) and just drawdown speed (Njd) in the stirred tank were predicted. Results showed that the mixing quality of floating and sinking particles increased with the increase of impeller speed. Smaller density difference between solid-liquid two phases and smaller particle diameter resulted in higher suspension degree. Fractal impeller can enhance water integrated velocity and improve suspension quality compared with four pitched-blade impeller under the constant power consumption, and increasingly so with fractal iteration number. Meanwhile, fractal impeller can reduce the size of trailing vortex and decrease the power consumption based on four pitched-blade impeller at the same impeller speed. In addition, the just suspension speed (Njs), just drawdown speed (Njd) and correlation equation for Njs and Njd in the three different impeller systems were obtained. Fractal impeller could decrease the Njs and Njd on the basis of four pitched-blade impeller, and decreasingly so with the fractal iteration number.