LARGE EDDY SIMULATIONS OF THE TURBULENT FLOW IN A STIRRED TANK

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of the fluid flow in a baffled, stirred tank with a single Rushton turbine are performed. The simulations are carried out on the “Shengcao-21C” supercomputer via commercial CFD software CFX5, using k-ε and large eddy simulation (LES) turbulence model respectively. Results show that CFD simulations using k-ε and LES model agree well with DPIV measurements. From the LES simulation, the velocity fluctuation is shown to occur with the development of vortices and eddies. This shows that LES simulation is better than k-ε simulation, although it demands a lot more computational time and computer memory. The results of the present work help to give deep understanding to the mixing mechanisms of the mechanically agitated tank, and can be used as guidance for future development of engineering tools for the design and scale-up of the stirred tank.