Investigation of the dynamic and thermal performance of kinetic-static mixers: a numerical simulation study

Abstract

In this paper, a numerical simulation was carried out to investigate the dynamic and thermal behaviors of various shapes of a kinetic static mixer. Three-dimensional model of the static mixer was designed using commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software, CFX 18.2. To examine the mixer's performance, five parameters have been considered including Re, Shear stress rate, Nu, fluid temperature and pressure drop. The fluid velocity was characterized by Reynolds numbers varying from 10 to 100, pressure drop, and shear rate has been considered for evaluating dynamic performance. Furthermore, fluid temperature and the Nusselt number was examinate to gain insights into thermal characteristics. In this study, the effectiveness of four different mixer shapes was evaluated. The outcomes underlined the significant impact changes in mixing geometry can have on the fluid's dynamic behavior, which in turn affects thermal performance. Notably, among the suggested mixer shapes, case three shows best mixing performance. This study offers significant knowledge about the dynamic and thermal behavior of kinetic static mixers, emphasizing the critical function of shape in raising overall performance.