A NUMERICAL STUDY ON MIXING IN THE KENICS STATIC MIXER

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Abstract
Mixing in the Kenics Static Mixer is analyzed in this paper. The velocity field is calculated using helical coordinates. The twist angle per element, ß, and the aspect ratio of a mixing element, L/R, are taken as parameters. Poincaré sections show that uniform mixtures cannot be produced for small ß or small L/R, since the corresponding element is either too flat or too short to produce effective mixing. Furthermore, an alternation of mixing windows where uniform mixing takes place and island regions in the parameter space is found using bifurcation analysis. The rate of mixing for various combination of parameters is calculated, based on the evaluation of uniformity using the Kolmogorov test. An optimal design of the element is suggested, which enables producing quality mixtures with minimum pressure drop. A good agreement between simulation of some mixing processes and existing experiments is observed.

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