Effect of baffles on fluid flow field in stirred tank with floating particles by using PIV

Abstract PIV technique was applied to elucidate the effect of baffles at different shaft positions and different impeller off‐bottom clearances on the flow field in a stirred tank with floating particles. The investigation was carried out in a cylindrical tank with a flat base, and five different baffle configurations: standard baffles, narrow baffles with a width of 15 mm, narrow baffles with a width of 10 mm, down triangular baffles and up triangular baffles. The measurements show that down triangular baffles offers several advantages over standard baffles at C = T /3: high axial and radial velocities, relatively Low critical agitation speed and power consumption for just drawdown of 1.0 vol.% floating particles. While at C = T /2 this superiority disappears and the fluid flow field is similar to that for standard baffles. The other baffles are similar in performance except for a small difference in the critical agitation speed. An off‐centred shaft helps reduce the critical just drawdown speed and the corresponding power consumption for baffle configurations considered. With down triangular baffles, the critical power consumption to draw down the floating particles for the most eccentric shaft is about 42% of that for a centred shaft. © 2012 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering