Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation of Multiscale Mixing in Anionic Polymerization Tubular Reactors

The molecular properties of polymers are greatly influenced by operation parameters during polymerization in reactors. Since operation parameter distributions in reactors also result in molecular property distributions, polymerization bridges the gap between molecular properties and operation parameters. The combination of the computational fluid dynamics technology with the method of moments to form a uniquely coupled model was used to describe multiscale mixing fields in the reactor. The coupled model was validated by open experimental data, and the effects of polymerization kinetics on macroscopic and microscopic fields were investigated numerically. Also, the coupled model was applied to numerically predict the impacts of some key operation conditions on the main macroscopic flow field parameters and polymer molecular properties.