Optimization of the Mixing Flow in an Agitated Tank

In the chemical, mineral and electronics industries, mechanically stirred tanks are widely used for complex liquid and particle mixing processes. In order to understand the complex phenomena that occur in such tanks, it is necessary to investigate flow field in the vessel. Most difficulty on the numerical analysis of stirred tank flow field focused particularly on free surface analysis. In order to decrease the dead zone and improve the flow efficiency of a system with free surface, this paper presents a new method that overcomes free surface effects by properly combining the benefits of using experiment and 3-D CFD. This method is applied to study the mixing flow in an agitated tank. From the results of experimental studies using the PIV (particle image velocimetry) system, the distribution of mixing flow including free surface are obtained. And these values that are expressed as a velocity vector field have been patched for simulating the free surface. The results of velocity distribution obtained by 3-D CFD are compared with those of experimental results. The experimental data and the simulation results are in good agreement.