Numerical investigation on hydrodynamics and heat transfer of highly viscous fluid in Sulzer mixer reactor

摘要

Computational fluid dynamics was used to investigate the laminar hydrodynamics and heat transfer performance of highly viscous fluid in Sulzer mixer reactor (SMR), which was validated with the heat transfer and visualization mixing experiments. Compared to a straight tube heat exchanger (STHE) and a straight tube heat exchanger with segmental baffles (STHE-SG), SMR exhibits more uniform distributions of velocity and temperature and narrower residence time distribution. The regularly arranged heat exchange tubes continuously twist and split the highly viscous fluid in SMR shell side, leading to radial mixing. In the range of Reynolds number (0.004-20), the Nusselt number of SMR is around 1.2-2.3 times as that of STHE and 1.2-1.6 times as that of STHE-SG. For the mixing and heat transfer of highly viscous fluid, SMR exhibits more effective mixing and better heat transfer performance in the laminar regime.