Experimental study on mixing characteristics of flexible-blade Rushton impeller

Rapid mixing is the key factor to efficient operation of many industrial devices involving fluid flow. During the past several decades, extensive contributions have been made to improve the mixing effect and efficiency either by modifying and developing new types of impellers, or by employing and developing new fluid mixing techniques. In this paper, the turbulent mixing characteristics of the flexible-blade Rushton impeller developed by ourselves were experimentally studied by the planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) technique. Roddinmin 6G was used as fluorescer. The agitated fluid was water. Result of the calibration experiment shows that the fluorescer luminosities are linear with their concentration, which can be used as a benchmark to measure the mixing time under the same experimental conditions. Diffusion processes of fluorescer show that flexible-blade Rushton impeller has better mixing performance than the standard Rushton impeller. It can improve the mixing uniformity and increase the mixing speed, especially at the initial stage of the mixing process. By comparison with standard Rushton impeller, it was found that mixing time of flexible-blade Rushton impeller is shorter, which is helpful to improve the fluid mixing efficiency. Results of this work lay a solid foundation for the industrial application of this impeller. © All Right Reserved.