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Design and parametric optimization of a fan-notched baffle structure mixer for enhancement of liquid-liquid two-phase chemical process

  • Shuangfei Zhao , Yingying Nie , Yimin Wei , Pengjie Yu , Wei He , Ning Zhu , Yuguang Li , Dong Ji and Kai Guo EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: September 30, 2022

Abstract

The mixing uniformity plays a crucial role in a liquid-liquid two-phase chemical process. To quantify the uniformity of the liquid–liquid process, the specific surface area ratio is proposed and studied through computational fluid dynamics simulation. There is a scale effect in the liquid–liquid two phase chemical processing that the specific surface area ratio decreases to 7.01% when the diameter of the Y-like mixer increases from 1 mm to 10 mm. A millimeter-scale mixer with a fan-notched baffle structure was designed, and the baffle unit length, baffle tilt angle, baffle notch size and baffle thickness of the mixer were optimized. Compared with the 1 mm Y-like mixer, the specific surface area ratio of the 10 mm mixer with notched baffle structures increases to 2.5 times and the treatment capacity increases to 100 times. Additionally, experiment and simulation results prove that FNBS is considered to be a suitable structure for enhancing liquid-liquid two-phase. This study will provide a useful reference for the design of large-scale mixers applicable to liquid-liquid heterogeneous chemical processes.


Corresponding author: Kai Guo, College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, China; and State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, China, E-mail:

Funding source: The Top-notch Academic Programs Project of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions

Funding source: The National Key R&D Program of China

Award Identifier / Grant number: 2021YFC2101900, 2019YFA0905000

Funding source: Nanjing International Joint R&D Project

Award Identifier / Grant number: 202002037

Funding source: National Natural Science Foundation of China

Award Identifier / Grant number: 21908094, 21776130 and 22078150

Funding source: Basic Research Program of Jiangsu Province (Natural Science Foundation)-Frontier Leading Technology Basic Research Project-Frontier Project

Award Identifier / Grant number: BK20212003

Funding source: Jiangsu Province Industrial Prospects and Key Core Technologies-Competitive Projects

Award Identifier / Grant number: BE2021083

Nomenclature

A

The area of the radial section

a

The baffle thickness

A i

The area of the interface between two fluids in a certain radial section

A s

The total area of the interface between two phases

c

Mass fraction

CFD

Computational Fluid Dynamics

D

Molecular diffusion coefficient

D i

The internal diameter

F

Surface tension between two phases

f 2

The Near wall attenuation function

FNBS

Fan-notched baffle structure

GC-MS

Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

k

The turbulent kinetic energy

L s

The baffle unit length

L Y

Tube diameter

n

The number of sections

p

Pressure

Q

Treatment volume

Re

Reynolds number

S ij

The mean-velocity strain-rate tensor

u

Velocity vector

v

The flow rate

V

The volume of the two phases

VOF

Volume of fluid

YLTM

Y-like tube mixer

κ

Average curvature of the two-phase interface

Δ N c

The number of ester moles reacting with NaOH

N c 0

The complete number of ester moles

X s

The product distribution

α l i

The α at different radial planes

ɛ

The turbulent dissipation rate

α

Specific surface area ratio

δ ij

Kronecker delta

η

Dynamic viscosity

θ 1

The baffle tilt angle

θ 2

The baffle notch angle

μ t

The eddy viscosity

ρ

Density

τ tij

The Reynolds stress

φ ɛ

The Wall item

φ k

The Wall item

  1. Author contribution: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: The research has been supported by The National Key R&D Program of China (2021YFC2101900, 2019YFA0905000); Basic Research Program of Jiangsu Province (Natural Science Foundation)-Frontier Leading Technology Basic Research Project-Frontier Project (BK20212003); The National Natural Science Foundation of China (21908094, 21776130 and 22078150); Jiangsu Province Industrial Prospects and Key Core Technologies-Competitive Projects (BE2021083); Nanjing International Joint R&D Project (202002037); The Top-notch Academic Programs Project of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.

  3. Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that we have no declaration of interest in connection with the work submitted.

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Received: 2022-07-11
Revised: 2022-09-06
Accepted: 2022-09-18
Published Online: 2022-09-30

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