Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English en
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
Content archived on 2024-04-15

DEVELOPMENT OF EXPERIMENTALLY TESTED 3-D COMPUTER CODES FOR FUNDAMENTAL DESIGN OF PROCESS EQUIPMENT INVOLVING NON-NEWTONIAN MULTIPHASE TURBULENT FLUIDS

Objective


Results achieved have included:
the devising and implementation of a non-Newtonian turbulence model and 2 phase liquid solid and liquid gas systems;
models of the effect of turbulent flow on processes such as mixing, heat transfer and mass transfer, chemical reaction, and breakup and coalescence of bubbles and droplets;
improvements in numerical methods for calculating these models.

Computer programs have been developed which are targeted at specific common pieces of process equipment such as stirred tanks. However, the underlying principles can be applied in many ways to many different types of equipment.

The major tasks included:
The formulation of equations for non-Newtonian turbulent flow
Refinement of a model for turbulent liquid-solid flow and its extension to liquid-gas flows. A key aspect of this task was the description of the interaction between particles, bubbles, and turbulent eddies.
Improvement of the numerical algorithms used to solve the governing equations significant improvement was made which will benefit computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in other areas.
Implementation of flow models developed into computer programs for stirred tanks (MIXFLO) and pipes (DUCTFLO). The former required considerable study to formulate appropriate boundary conditions for the impeller in a stirred tank.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been applied to process engineering problems. 2 of the most common types of equipment used in the chemical industry, namely pipes (including jet mixers) and stirred tanks, but the theoretical foundations developed are applicable to arbitrary geometries.

The predicted flows were compared with experimental data. These comparisons clearly demonstrated the ability of CFD to predict flow patterns accurately, even in situations as complex as those which occur in stirred vessels.

The mechanisms for droplet and bubble breakup and coalescence were studied in detail, leading to expressions for the rate at which these processes take place. Models for these phenomena were assembled.

An efficient mathematical description of mixing and chemical reactions in turbulent flow was formulated. An elegant mathematical description was obtained which can be applied to virtually any mixing or reaction problem.

The mixing, chemical reaction and bubble breakup and coalescence were implemented into computer programs. MIXREACT uses the flow patterns calculated by MIXFLO to solve these problems in stirred tanks whilst DUCTREACT uses DUCTFLO output for computation in pipes. These programs also include heat transfer.

MIXREACT and DUCTREACT output was compared with experimental data. These clearly show how CFD techniques can be used to understand the processes taking place in processing equipment.

THIS PROJECT SETS OUT TO DEVISE, IMPLEMENT AND VERIFY COMPUTATIONAL METHODS FOR THE PREDICTION OF NON-NEWTONIAN MULTI-PHASE TURBULENT FLOW AND THE CONSEQUENT EFFECTS THEREOF IN PROCESS EQUIPMENT.
PREDICTIONS ARE TO BE BASED ON THE FUNDAMENTAL PHYSICS OF LOCAL PHENOMENA AND NOT THE SUSPECT GLOBAL EMPIRICAL CORRELATIONS CURRENTLY USED IN THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY. THE VERIFIED PREDICTIONS WILL PROVIDE A CAPABILITY FOR BETTER DIAGNOSIS OF EXISTING EQUIPMENT PERFORMANCE AND OPTIMAL DESIGN OF NEW EQUIPMENT WITHOUT EXCESSIVE INTERMEDIATE EXPERIMENTAL SCALE-UP.
FASTER, CHEAPER AND MORE EFFICENT DEVELOPMENT OF NEW PROCESSES WILL RESULT.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Data not available

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

Data not available

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

CSC - Cost-sharing contracts

Coordinator

IMPERIAL CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES PLC
EU contribution
No data
Address
Millbank Imperial Chemical House
SW1P 3JF LONDON
United Kingdom

See on map

Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data

Participants (2)

My booklet 0 0