Hydrodynamics and Mixing in Mesoscale Integrated Fluidic Oscillatory Flow Reactor (F-OFR)

Time-dependent laminar flow in a continuous fluidic oscillatory flow reactor was studied using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Single-phase CFD models are developed for both the continuous oscillatory flow reactor (C-OFR) and the fluidic oscillatory flow reactor (F-OFR), to analyze the flow patterns for the laminar regime. Fluid flow in C-OFR and F-OFR is entirely different, even though both are driven by oscillatory flows. This is due to the difference in the nature of oscillations imparted, longitudinal, and transverse oscillations, respectively. The effect of oscillatory flow caused by baffles upon pressure drop, as well as the instantaneous flow and shear strain rate fields has been investigated for F-OFR. Complex flow behavior is observed wherein the formation of vortices due to both flow constriction and flow reversal with various amounts of pressure drop takes place in accordance with the oscillatory nature of the flow. An attempt has been made to bring forth the impact of oscillatory flow caused by the fluidic oscillator on velocity, shear strain rates, and vorticity for single orifice baffles and to present quantitative measures to gather design information to better quantify the reactor performance of this mesoscale reactor.