Computational work

In order to calculate the evolution of the flow field in the CSTRs, the fully three-dimensional, time-dependent, Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations have been integrated on the discretized domain for the three different configurations: i) laboratory vessel, ii) industrial size reactor type CE12500 (retreated curved blade impeller) and iii) industrial size reactor type BE12500 (turbofoil turbine). During the investigation, the influence of fluid properties and of angular velocity of the impeller have been examined. The investigation was conducted using the commercial code Star-CD. The solution of the flow field is based on finite volume discretization of the domain. Computations were performed on a Sun Server Enterprise, equipped with two processors Ultra SPARC-II 400MHz and 1Gb RAM. The most up to date techniques required to solve specific fluid dynamic problems of CSTRs have been employed. In particular, all simulations started from still fluid; the change of the frame of reference due to the rotation of the impeller was treated with the sliding mesh approach; the turbulent flow field was simulated with a $k-\epsilon$ model.