Investigation of the temporal and spatial flow features within the high‐shear mixer by modal decomposition techniques

Abstract An insightful comprehension of hydrodynamics in the high‐shear mixer (HSM) is crucial for its design and optimization. Therefore, the energetical and dynamical dominant features of inline HSM's velocity fields are extracted by proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) and dynamic mode decomposition (DMD), of which the sampling spaces are generated through Large‐Eddy Simulation. POD results reveal that the significant flow structures located in the shear gap and the adjacent regions of rotor/stator slot inlets comprise various energy levels. The strip‐shaped structures at the rotor/stator leading edges, wake and large‐scale vortices within the outflow region, and circulation inside the rotor slot are also visualized. DMD results emphasize the importance of flow patterns oscillating lower than rotor teeth passage frequency and reveal that the coherent structures shift and expand as their frequencies decrease. The POD and DMD analyses provide an insightful perspective of the spatial and temporal behaviors of the flow in HSM.