A new geometrical model for mixing of highly viscous fluids by combining two-blade and helical screw agitators

Abstract Mixing processes are becoming today a huge concern for industrialists in various domains like the pharmaceutical production, oil refining, food industry and manufacture of cosmetic products especially when the processes are related to the mixing of highly viscous products. So the choice of a stirring system for this category of products or fluids must be rigorously examined before use because of the flows which are laminar in the most cases, something that is not good to obtain homogeneous particles or suspensions after the mixing operation. This CFD study allows developing a new geometrical model of mechanical agitator with high performance for mixing of highly viscous fluids. It consists of a combination of two bladed and helical screw agitators. The investigations of the flow structure generated in the vessel are made by using the computer code ANSYS CFX (version 13.0), which allows us to realize and test the effectiveness of the new stirrer on the resulting mixture and power consumption.