Optimal location of axial impellers in a stirred tank applying evolutionary programing and CFD

•We apply evolutionary programing and computational fluid dynamics techniques.•Optimal locations of impellers were found in a stirred tank.•Mixing times and power consumption were found in several systems.

The optimal location of one and two impellers on the central shaft of a tall stirred tank was obtained using a combination of Evolutionary Programing (EP) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques; this location was evaluated through the determination of the normalized mixing time (TN) and power consumption (PC). The systems were simulated using 45̊ pitched, down-pumping, 4-blade turbine impellers (PBT). The EP method considered a small population of 6 individuals (systems) where the impeller(s) were located on the shaft in order to cover most of the search space through the fitness function. Populations were generated by applying the selection and mutation of genetic operators to the best individuals for the next generation. Four generations of population were needed to find the optimal location of the impeller(s) in the shaft. The results show the best individual performance for the systems with one and two impellers.