Fluid dynamics and mixing of single-phase flow in a stirred vessel with a grid disc impeller: Experimental and numerical investigations

We report experimental and numerical investigations of a novel grid disc impeller for mixing of single-phase flow in stirred vessels. We performed detailed mean velocity measurements using LDA to understand the flow generated by the grid disc impeller and we also measured the mixing time and power consumption of the grid disc impeller. Measurements showed that the performance of the grid disc impeller, which has radial flow characteristics, is equivalent to a standard propeller in terms of the degree of mixing achieved per unit power consumption. We also performed numerical simulations to predict the flow generated by the grid disc impeller and its mixing performance. It was shown that the present computational model predicts the mean velocities, power consumption and mixing time in good agreement with the measurements. The experimentally validated computational model was further used to understand the effects of impeller rotational speed and grid disc configuration on the fluid dynamics and mixing performance of the grid disc impeller.