In this study, flow structures and mixing performance in a blade-free planetary mixer, which combines rotation and revolution motions inside a cylindrical vessel, are numerically investigated. Flow fields in the mixer vessel are simulated in a single rotating reference frame with various revolution speeds and a fixed rotation speed. The mixing process is investigated by a Lagrangian particle tracking method and the mixing performance is evaluated based on particle concentration. The results of the numerical simulations show that a vortical flow with an axis inclined with respect to the rotation axis of the vessel is generated by the combined influence of the rotation and revolution motions. The flow structure and vortical flow intensity vary as a function of the precession rate, which is the ratio of the revolution speed to rotation speed. The mixing performance of the blade-free planetary mixer is found to be maximum at aspecific precession rate.
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