CFD analysis of flow field and power consumption of in-line high shear mixers with different stator structures

Abstract As a new type of process enhancement equipment, the high shear mixer (HSMs) has very complicated structure, high strain rate, and very complicated internal flow, makes it more difficult to understand the flow and mixing characteristics. Although the relationships between the power consumption and operating parameters of HSMs have been obtained, there are too many factors to be considered, and there is still a lack in how the model parameters depend on the design parameter size, such as the geometric structure sizes of the rotor and stator. In this study, Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used to study the effect of different number of stator slots and stator tooth thicknesses on the flow field and power characteristics of in-line HSMs under the same stator opening area. Through the CFD simulation of Newtonian fluid and shear thinning power-law fluid, the functional relationship between power consumption constant K P , strain rate constant K s , stator tooth thickness and the number of stator slots is studied. The results show that with the decrease of the number of stator slots n s and the thickness of stator teeth T s , the jet intensity from the outermost stator tooth slots increases, and the circulating flow behind the jet increases, so the influence of the jet on the tangential movement is more obvious. With the increase of stator tooth thickness, K P decreases and K s increases. With the increase of the number of stator slots, K P and K s increase. Based on the correlation between K P and K s and stator structure parameters, a new correlation with tip-to-base clearance, shear gap width, stator thickness and the number of stator slots for the power number is established. A new correlation can be provided as a unified correlation for viscous fluid in the laminar regime.