Transient motion of an industrial mixer with elastically suspended work head

Abstract

This paper investigates the transient behavior of a novel design of an industrial mixer incorporating additional work head movement. In contrast to conventional models, this mixer consists of an elastic torsion bar with its longitudinal axis oriented orthogonally to the main drive shaft axis. Using the elastic torsion bar to hang the workhead adds an additional degree of freedom, greatly improving the mixing of fluids or powders. The motion of the electro-mechanical device was simulated using a system of nonlinear differential equations that consider the dynamic characteristics of the driving electric motor, as derived from the theorem for the rate of change of angular momentum. A numerical analysis was carried out to study the transient processes in the system under different working conditions. Finally, a constrained multiobjective optimization was performed to identify the optimal design variable values that minimize the force and power characteristics of the mixer.