Helical screw agitator (HSA) is widely used to stir the high viscous fluids in many industrial processes. In order to evaluate the capacity of a helical screw agitator, it is necessary to calculate the flow and mixing characteristics in the given conf...
Helical screw agitator (HSA) is widely used to stir the high viscous fluids in many industrial processes. In order to evaluate the capacity of a helical screw agitator, it is necessary to calculate the flow and mixing characteristics in the given configuration in the vessel with a draught tube. Numerical procedure for the determination of these characteristics is put forward, based on the prediction of transient phenomena such as flow fields and particle suspensions for an agitator in a draught tube. The effects of the rotational frequency and the shape of the screw were also considered. The rate of solid suspension in the agitator was qualitatively estimated with the variation (σ²) which is the representative statistical value. Using a commercial CFD code, Fluent, the velocity, pressure and particle distributions were obtained with unsteady, laminar flow and no-slip condition. Results are graphically depicted with various flow and geometrical parameters.