Numerical Simulation of Laminar Solid-Liquid Two-Phase Flow in Stirred Tanks

Laminar flow of solid-liquid suspension has been rarely reported in the literature. In this article, the laminar solid-liquid two-phase flow in a lab-scale stirred tank is measured with digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) and numerically simulated with the improved inner-outer iterative method. The simulation results show good agreement with the present data. In the range of low solid volume concentration under investigation, solid particles have minor impact on two-phase flow, and the simulated flow fields of both phases are similar to the counterpart of single-phase laminar liquid flow. The comparison of simulation with experiments of single-phase laminar flow shows reasonable agreement. These observations suggest that the numerical method employed in the present study is reliable for analysis of stirred tanks. The influence of impeller off-bottom clearance on velocities is found significant: the lower the impeller, the smaller the radial and axial velocities, and the higher the solid concentration.