Agitation & mixing of liquid
Agitation: It is an induced motion of a material in a specified way.
Mixing: It refers to random distribution into and through one
another of two or more initially separate phases.
Purpose of agitation
Liquids are agitated for a number of purposes.
1) Suspending of solid particles (Suspension)
2) Blending of miscible liquids (water& alcohol)
3) Dispersing a gas through liquid in the form of small bubbles
(Bubble)
4) Dispersing immiscible liquid in the form of emulsion of fine
drops (emulsion)
5) Promoting heat transfer between liquid and coil or jacket.
• Agitator: Two parts Impeller & shaft
Typical agitation vessel • Type of impeller : 3 types
(i) Propeller, (ii) Paddle, (iii) Turbine
Impeller : Divided into 2 classes based on flow pattern
1) Axial flow impeller:
generate current parallel to axis of impeller
2) Radial flow impeller:
generate current in a radial or tangential direction
Use to mix immiscible liquids & mixing of very viscous fluids
Propellers
• It consists of number of blades, generally 3 bladed
design is most common for liquids. Blades may be
right or left handed depending upon the slant of their
blades.
• more propellers are used for deep tank.
• Size of propeller is small and may increased up to
0.5metres depending upon the size of the tank.
• Small size propellers can rotate up to 8000rpm and
produce longitudinal movement.
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Advantages of propellers:
• Used when high mixing capacity is required
• Effective for liquids which have maximum viscosity of 2.0
pa.sec or slurry up to 10% solids of fine mesh size
• Effective gas-liquid dispersion is possible at laboratory scale
Disadvantages of propellers:
• Propellers are not normally effective with liquids of viscosity
greater than 5 pa.sec, such as glycerin castor oil, etc.
Turbines
• A turbine consists of a circular disc to which a
number of short blades are attached. Blades
may be straight or curved.
• The diameter of the turbine ranges from 30-
50% of the diameter of the vessel.
• Turbines rotates at a lower speed than the
propellers (50-200rpm).
• Flat blade turbines produce radial and
tangential flow but as the speed increases
radial flow dominates.
• Pitched blade turbine produces axial flow.
• Near the impeller zone of rapid currents, high
turbulence and intense shear is observed.
• Diffuser ring increase the shear forces and
liquid passes through the perforations
reducing rotational swirling and vortexing.
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Advantages of Turbines:
• Turbines give greater shearing forces than
propellers through the pumping rate is less.
Therefore suitable for emulsification.
• Effective for high viscous solutions with a
wide range of viscosities up to 7.0 Pascal.
Second.
• In low viscous materials of large volumes, turbine create a strong currents
which spread throughout the tank destroying stagnant pockets.
• They can handle slurries with 60% solids.
• Turbines are suitable for liquids of large volume and high viscosity, if the tank
is baffled.
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Paddles
• A paddle consists of a central hub with
long flat blades attached to it vertically.
• Two blades or four blades are common.
sometimes the blades are pitched and
may be dished or hemispherical in shape
and have a large surface area in relation
to the tank in which they are used.
• Paddles rotates at a low speed of
100rpm.
• They push the liquid radially and tangentially with almost no axial action unless
blades are pitched.
• In deep tanks several paddles are attached one above the other on the same shaft.
• At very low speeds it gives mild agitation in unbaffled tank but as for high speeds
baffles are necessary.
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• Pitch :
A full revolution of propeller would move the liquid
longitudinally a fixed distance. The rates of this distance
to the impeller diameter is known as pitch.
Square pitch: If propeller pitch is 1.0
• Propeller:
– Axial flow, high speed impeller
– Used for low viscosity liquid
– Speed for small impeller: 1150-1750 r/minute
– Speed for large impeller: 400-800 r/minute
• Paddle:
Radial flow/tangential
Used for moderate or high viscosity liquid
Speed : 20 to 150 r/min
Dia.: 50-80 % of vessel dia
Width: 1/6 – 1/10 of its length
For high speed , baffles are required, otherwise liquid is swirled around
the vessel at high speed & little mixing.
Turbine:
• Radial flow/tangential flow
• Used for high viscosity of fluid
• Dia. : 30-50 % of vessel dia.
• Low speed
• For high speed, it produces rapid current, high turbulence and
intense shear. The tangential component induce vortexing &
swirling. It must be reduce by baffles.
Turbine Agitated vessel (Jacket)
Typical proportions: for scale up
Da 1 H J 1
; 1;
Dt 3 Dt D t 12
E 1 W 1 L 1
; ;
Dt 3 Da 5 Da 4
Vortex: The motion of fluid
swirling rapidly around a center.
Prevention of Swirling: (Swirling
spinning)
- Swirling can be prevented by any of 3
methods.
(i) For small tank , impeller can be mounted
off center
For large tank, agitator may be mounted
in the side of the tank
(ii) Installing Baffles:
Its impede rotational or tangential flow without interfering
with radial or longitudinal flow
(iii)Type of impeller:
Propeller: It drives the liquid down to the bottom of tank,
where stream spread radially in all direction towards the wall,
flows upwards along the wall & returns to the suction of
impeller from top
Baffle: It is a vertical section or wall within the tank that reduces
the velocity
• Velocity profile:
– Velocity profile from straight blade turbine.
u 2 actu al velocity of blad e
V r2 radial velocity of liquid leaving tip s
V u2 tangential velocity of liq uid leavin g tip s
• Volumetric flow rate through the impeller:
[ impeller dia., width]
volumetric flow rate
speed of rotation
impeller dia.
• Reynolds number, Re: At Re < 10, laminar flow
At Re > 10 4, turbulent flow
• Flow no. :
- This gives the discharge flow rate from the tip of impeller
• Power consumption:
Power required to drive the impeller is given by the flow in the
tank by impeller (q) & K.E. per unit volume of fluid for
turbulent flow
• Power P: product of the flow rate q and the kinetic energy per
unit volume Ek
Dimensionless number
Power number, NP:
• ratio of drag force to momentum flow
• NP is analogous to f or CD
Plots of power number NP vs. Reynolds
number Re for baffled tanks
Calculation of power consumption
• The power delivered to the liquid,
for both baffled & unbaffled tanks
At high Re (Re > 10,000),
for baffled tanks
Problem
A disk turbine with six blades is installed centrally in a vertical
baffle tank 2 m in dia. The turbine is 0.67 m in dia. & is
positioned 0.67 m above the bottom of the tank. The turbine
blades are 134 mm wide. The tank is filled to a depth of 2 m with
an aqueous solution of 50% NaOH at 65 deg. C, which has a
viscosity of 12 cP & a density of 1500 kg/cm3. Turbine impeller
turns at 90 r/min. What power will be required?
Solution
1st calculate Reynolds no.
Turbulent flow.
So,
From table 9.2,
. ) . )
