CH 2255 Mechanical Operation

Unit-5
Dr.R.Saravanathamizhan
Associate Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering
SSN College of Engineering
Chennai.

Dr. R.Saravanathamizhan

Chemical Engineering Department

Agitation and Mixing

Agitation -refers to the induced motion of a material in a specified way,
usually in a circulatory pattern inside some sort of container.

A single homogenous material, such as a tank full of cold water can be

agitated, but it can not be mixed until some other material is added to it.

Dr. R.Saravanathamizhan

Chemical Engineering Department

Examples of Processes that uses Agitation

Blending of two miscible liquids
Dissolving solids in liquids
Dispersing a gas in a liquid as fine bubbles, such as oxygen
in a suspension of microorganisms for waste-treatment
Suspension of fine solid particle, such as metallic pigments
in paint
Agitation of a fluid to eliminate temperature gradients

Dr. R.Saravanathamizhan

Chemical Engineering Department

Agitation Equipment
Cylindrical vessel with a vertical axis
Vessel bottom is rounded
Liquid depth is approximately equal to the
diameter of the tank
An impeller is mounted on an overhung
shaft. Shaft is driven by a motor
The impeller creates a flow pattern in the
system, causing the liquid to circulate
through the vessel and return eventually to
the impeller

Impellers
Divided into two classes:
Axial-flow impellers
generate currents parallel with the axis of
impeller
Radial-flow impellers
generate currents in a tangential or radial
direction.
Three main types of impellers:
Propellers
Paddles
Turbines
5

Axial and radial flow patterns

Zlokarnik 2001:7

Axial Flow pattern

Parallel with axis of
impeller shaft

Radial Flow
Tangential flow

Some visual examples

Simple straight blade Turbine
3-blade marine Impeller

Concave Six disk Turbine

Six disk Turbine

Pitched blade Turbine

Propellers
Axial flow high speed impeller, for
liquids of low viscosity
Small impellers turn at full motor
speed
Pitch of propeller: a propeller with a
pitch of 1.0 is said to have square pitch
Rarely exceed 18 in diameter
regardless of the size of the vessel
In a deep tank two or more propellers
may be mounted on the same shaft
8

Paddles
Flat paddle turning on a vertical shaft
Two-bladed and four-bladed paddles are
common
Sometimes the blades are pitched; more often
they are vertical
Push the liquid radially and tangentially with
almost no vertical motion
In deep tanks several paddles are mounted one
above the other on the same shaft
-contd..
9

Paddles
In some designs blades conform to the shape of
the vessel so that they scrape the surface or pass
over with close clearance
Eg. Anchor agitators
Anchor agitators are useful for preventing deposits
on a heat transfer surface
Industrial paddle agitators turn at speed between
20 and 150 rpm
Total length of impeller is 50-80% of the ID of
vessel
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Paddles

Four bladed
Anchor type

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Turbines
Multi-bladed paddle agitators with short blades, turning at
high speeds
Blades may be straight, or curved, pitched or vertical
Impellers may be open, semi-enclosed, or shrouded
Dia of impeller is smaller than with paddles, ranging from
30 to 50% of vessel dia
Effective over a wide range of viscosities

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Turbines

Open straight-blade
turbine

Open curved blade

turbine
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Selection of Impellers
In the direction of viscosity increase
Propeller
Turbine
Paddle
Anchor

Helical ribbon
Helical screw
Speed of impeller decreases in the above order.
Propellers: up to 10,000 cP;
Turbines: up to 15,000 cP;
Anchors: upto 100,000 cP
14

Flow patterns
Depends on the type of impeller, characteristics
of the fluid, size and proportions of tank, baffles
and agitator.
Velocity of fluid has three components, and the
overall flow pattern in the tank depends on the
variations in these velocity components from
point to point
Three velocity components:
Radial, longitudinal, and rotational or
tangential
-contd..
15

Flow patterns
Radial component acts in a direction perpendicular to the
shaft of the impeller
Longitudinal component acts in a direction parallel with
the shaft
Tangential or rotational component acts in a direction
tangent to a circular path around the shaft
The radial and longitudinal components are useful and
provide the flow necessary for the mixing action

16

Vortex formation
When the shaft is vertical and centrally located in
the tank, the tangential component is generally
disadvantageous
The tangential flow follows a circular path
around the shaft, and creates a vortex at the
surface of the liquid
At high impeller speeds the vortex may be so
deep that it reaches the impeller, and gas from
above the liquid is drawn down into the charge
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Vortex formation and Swirling

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Prevention of Swirling
Off-centered mounting of impeller
Mounting agitator with inclination to the
vertical axis
Installing baffles
Baffles are not generally required with
high viscosity liquids where vortexing is
not a problem
Using draft tubes
19

Agitator Flow patterns

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Degree of Agitation
Agitator tip-speed is
commonly used as a
measure of degree of
agitation
Tip-speed = D n
Expressed in feet/min
(fpm)

Low

500-650 fpm

Medium

650-800 fpm

High

800-1100 fpm

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Power consumption
Power required to rotate a given impeller
depends on:

important measurements of tank and impeller

viscosity and the density of the liquid
speed of agitator
acceleration of gravity g

Empirical correlations of power with the

above variables by dimensional analysis
are available.
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Power correlation
Power P is a function of the variables:

By dimensional analysis:

Taking account of shape factors:

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Dimensionless Groups
Power number

Reynolds number

Froude number

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Power Correlations

25

Calculation of power consumption

From the definition of NP
At low Reynolds number

At high Reynolds number

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Scale-up of Agitator Design

When a small unit is built before the larger
or production unit pilot plant
When a small unit is built after the
production unit - model
Scale-up requires three types of similarity
between pilot-plot unit and full-scale unit:
Geometric similarity
Kinematic similarity
Dynamic similarity
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Geometric similarity
Refers to linear dimensions
Two vessels of different sizes are
geometrically similar if the ratios of the
corresponding dimensions on the two scales
are the same
If photographs of two vessels are completely
super-impossible, they are geometrically
similar
28

Kinematic Similarity
refers to motion
requires geometric similarity and the same ratio of
velocities for the corresponding positions in the
vessels

29

Dynamic Similarity
concerns forces
requires all force ratios for corresponding positions to
be equal in kinematically similar vessels
the significant dimensionless parameters must be
equal for model and prototype.

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Example of Scale-up

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32

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34

What is Mixing?
Can be defined as
a unit operation that involves manipulating
a heterogeneous physical system, with the intent to make it
more homogeneous.

Taking atleast two separate phases and causing them to distribute
randomly through one another.

Intermingling of two or more components to form a more or less
uniform product.
Complete mixing involves the dispersion of
components one
throughout the other and is the state in which all samples are found to
contain the components in the same proportion as in the whole mixture.

Why is mixing important?

To promote a chemical reaction. It is the most important use of
mixing in the chemical industry as intimate contact between
reacting phases is necessary for a reaction to proceed properly.
To produce simple physical mixtures-of two or more solids,
miscible or immiscible liquids, etc.
To carry out physical changes like formation of crystals from a
supersaturated solution.

Mixing
Mixing refers to the random distribution,
into and through one another, of two or
more initially separate phases
A single homogenous material, such as a
tank full of cold water can be agitated, but
it can not be mixed until some other
material is added to it.

37

Factors enhancing mixing

Low interfacial tension that inhibits the

formation of interfaces.

Similar densities that prevent separation by

stratification induced by gravity and centrifugal
fields.

Low viscosities that promote fluidity and the

penetration of one fluid element into another.

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Uniformity of Mixing - Measuring

By Various kinds of tracer techniques:
A dye is introduced and the time for attainment of uniform
color is noted.
A concentrated salt solution is added as tracer and the
measured electrical conductivity tells when the
composition is uniform
The residence time distribution is measured by monitoring
the outlet concentration of an inert tracer. The shape of
response curve is compared with that of a ideally mixed
tank

39

Liquid versus Solid Mixing

Liquid blending involves creation of flow currents
which transport unmixed material to the mixing zone.
In heavy pastes or masses of solids no such currents
are possible and hence normally more power is
required in mixing pastes and dry solids than in
blending liquids.

 In blending liquids well mixed product means a truly

homogeneous liquid phase from which random
samples, even of very small size will all have the
same composition.
In mixing pastes and powders the product often
consists of two or more easily identifiable phases
each of which may contain individual particles of
considerable size. From a well mixed product of this
kind small random samples will differ markedly in
composition.

Mixing Index

To judge the performance of an industrial mixer, mixing index is
calculated.

The performance of industrial mixer is judged by the time required, the
powder load and the properties of the product.

Both the requirements of the mixing device and the properties desired in
the mixed material vary widely from one problem to another.

Sometimes a very high degree of uniformity is required; sometimes a
rapid mixing action; sometimes a minimum amount of power.

The degree of uniformity of the mixed product as measured by
analyzing a number of spot samples and it is a valid quantitative
method to measure mixing effectiveness.

 Mixers act on two or more separate materials to intermingle

them, mostly in a random manner.
Once a material is randomly distributed through another,
mixing may be considered to be complete.
Based on these concepts a statistical procedure for measuring
mixing of granular solid is carried out as follows.

Theory to determine Mixing Index

Consider a solid mixture to which has been added
some kind of tracer material for easy analysis.
Let the overall number of fractions of tracer in the
mixture be .
Take a number of samples at random from various
locations in the mixture and determine the fraction of
tracer xi in each.
Let N be the no. of spot samples.
Let the average value of the measured fraction be x.

 When N is very large, x will be equal to .

When N is very small, both will be different.
If the solids are perfectly mixed, every value of x will
be equal to xi.
If mixing is not complete, x and xi will vary.
The deviation of the sample composition from the
mean composition of the overall mixture represents a
measure of the mixing process.
This deviation decreases as mixing progresses.

 A satisfactory way of measuring the deviation is to

use the statistical estimator, the standard deviation.
This is the mean of the sum of the squares of the
deviation from the mean value and thus it gives equal
value to negative and positive deviations and
increasingly greater weightage to larger deviations
because of squaring.
Hence the standard deviation about the average value
of x is a measure of the quality of mixing.


This standard deviation is estimated

analytical results by the equation,

from

The value of s is a relative measure of mixing,

valid only for tests of a specific material in a
specific mixture.

S diminishes towards zero as mixing proceeds.

This means that a low value of s means, good
mixing.

 Before mixing, material in a mixture will exist as 2

layers one without tracer material and one with tracer
material only.
Samples from the first layer will have the analysis, xi
= 0, in the other layer xi = 1.
So the standard deviation at zero mixing conditions is
given by,

 Therefore the mixing index for pastes Ip is the

reciprocal of s to the standard deviation at zero
mixing
Hence the mixing index Ip is given by,

 In any batch process, Ip is unity at the start and

increases as mixing proceeds.
Theoretically, Ip becomes infinity at long mixing
times but actually it does not due to 2 reasons:
Mixing is never quite complete.
Unless the analytical method is extraordinarily
precise, the measured values of xi will never agree
with each other or with x and Ip is finite even with
perfectly mixed material.

The following graph shows the mixing results of

natural soils.

 It shows that the mixing index for sand rises to a high

value and levels off.
It is the same case for finer particles too but mixing is
slower and limiting value of Ip is smaller.
This maximum limiting value of Ip for completely
mixed materials varies with the consistency of the
materials processed, the mixer effectiveness and
precision of the analytical method.

Factors affecting the mixing index

The relative particle size, shape and density.
The efficiency of the particle mixer for the
components being mixed.
The tendency of the materials to aggregate.
The moisture content, surface characteristics and flow
characteristics of each component.


Generally materials similar in size, shape and density

are able to form the most uniform mixtures.

Differences in these properties can also cause
segregation during mixing.

This phenomenon of segregation has to be avoided as
it prevents a perfect homogeneous powder blend from
being obtained.

Hence the quality of the powder mixture depends on
the dynamic equilibrium between mixing and
segregation which in turn depends on physical and
chemical properties of the particles.


A silty soil containing 14% moisture was mixed in a large

muller mixer with 10.00 weight percent of a tracer consisting
of dextrose and picric acid. After 3 minutes of mixing, 12
random samples were taken from the mixture and analysed
colorimetrically for tracer material. The measured
concentrations in the sample were in weight percent tracer,

10.24,9.30.7.94,10.24,11.08,10.03,11.91,9.72,9.20,10.76,10.97
and 10.55. Calculate the mixing index Ip.

Solid storage

Two type of solids

Cohesive solids
Non cohesive solids
Non-cohesive materials such as grain, dry sand and plastic chips
flow freely act of a storage bin or silo. For these solids
k(homogenous mass the ratio of the normal pressure to the
applied pressure is a constant ) is often between 0.35-0.60.
Cohesive solids such as wet clay are characterized by their
reluctance to flow through opening. For them the value k
approaches zero.

Dr. R.Saravanathamizhan

Chemical Engineering Department

bins and silo

Solids that are too valuable or too soluble to expose in outdoor piles are
stored in bin, hoppers or silos. These are cylindrical or rectangular
vessels of concrete or metal. A silo is tall and relatively small in
diameter, a bin is not so tall and usually fairly wide.

A hopper is a small vessel with a sloping bottom, for temporary storage

before feeding solids to a process. All these containers are located from
the top by same kind of elevator, is charging is generally done from the
bottom. a major problem in bin design is to provide satisfactory
discharge.

Reference
McCabe and Smith Unit operations in chemical Engineering.
Transport process and Separation Process Principles by Christe John
Geankoplis Fourth Edition, PHI publication

Dr. R.Saravanathamizhan

Chemical Engineering Department