DEM/CFD analysis of granular flow in static mixers

Abstract

Mixing of powders, particles and/or granules obtains an economic importance in various technologies, and in the food, pharmaceutical and chemical industries. In many cases, the mixing process greatly influences the quality of the final product. The parameters of the mixing process and the design of equipment have a strong impact on the mixing efficiency, and the quality and the price of the intermediate or final product. In this study, the discrete element method (DEM) is used for modeling of granular flow in various multiple Komax and Ross mixing applications. Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) method was used for modeling of fluid flow through the Eulerian multiphase model. Coupling of these two methods provides reliable, sufficiently correct and adequate results of the proposed model compared to experimental measurements. The objective of this paper is to predict the behavior of particles in different static mixer configurations. The results of the numerical simulation are compared with appropriate experimental results. Application of this model provides the optimization of the geometry and parameters of mixing systems taking into account the quality of the mixing process and the cost of the final product. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.