Reactive Mixing Behavior of the Nitration of Glycerin in a Stirred Vessel at Various Perturbation

Abstract

Mixing processes are best understood in turbulent flows, where, ironically they are only understood in a statistical sense. Similarly, detailed analysis of the mechanisms of the realistic mixing process in deterministic laminar flows is nearly absent from literature. This experiment was implemented to investigate the comparable performance of reactive mixing at various perturbation; including continuous, periodic and chaotic. The experiment was designed to reveal the effects of perturbations on glycerin dissolution in nitric acid in stirred vessel. The ratio of glycerin (C3H5(OH)3) to nitric acid (HNO3) is 1 : 3. The geometrical parameter was set to R1/R2= 37.5/7, and an eccentricity of ε = 18.75 mm. The mixing time for dissolving fixed amounts of glycerin in fixed amounts of nitric acid was measured and compared to those from several different perturbations. It was found that mixing time for the exothermic reaction of glycerin nitration had been influenced by perturbations applied to fluid mixing. Comparable experiments have shown that mixing time in the glycerin-nitration reaction could be changed dramatically, along with various perturbations. This experiment results explicitly demonstrate the benefits of mixing performance from chaotic perturbations.