Application of mean age distribution method

in mixing design optimization

Thanh Tinh Tran
1*
, Hye Kyeong Jang
1
, Wook Ryol Hwang
1

1
School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Gyeongsang National University,
Jinju 660-701, Gyeongnam, South Korea
*
Corresponding author. Email: trantt@gnu.ac.kr
Abstract: The numerous applications of mixing can be found in chemical, cosmetic,
pharmaceutical and food industries. The mixing efficiency is a key target that needs to be
carefully considered when a mixing system is designed. This study will present the application of
mean age distribution method in mixing design optimization.
In order to estimate the efficiency of a mixing system, the residence-time [1] of a tracer has
been widely used in numerous studies. But this method just gives the mean residence time of a
tracer at the outlet, and provides no information of spatial distribution inside the computational
domain. Another limitation of this method is time-dependent which takes more computational
time.
Base on the transport equation for the tracer species , Liu & Tilton (2010) [2] introduce the
transport or conservation equation for mean age
() [(

) ]
where the mean age is defined by

; and

, are the turbulent momentum

diffusivity, turbulent Schmidt number and molecular diffusivity, respectively. The transport
equation of mean age is in the same conservation form as the steady transport equation for
momentum, so can be solved as a scalar with the same CFD solver. Due to steady transport
equation, this mean age distribution (MAD) method also has lower computational cost than the
residence time method.
Having an inlet and an outlet (even though very small value of mass flow rate) is the priority
requirement of MAD method. The boundary conditions for mean age are: at inlet; and
at wall or outlet.
The MAD method is implemented in ANSYS Fluent V14.5 by using the User-Defined
Function [3]. A 2D stirred vessel with dimensions is considered for the test
case as showed in figure 1. The artificial impeller, which is imposed a profile velocity, has a
diameter , and a clearance from the bottom. The turbulent
model is used in this study.
The figures 3 & 4 show that MAD contour is not same as velocity field. The left side closes to
the inlet, so has small value of mean age; while the right side contains high value of mean age,
especially inside the circulation. The area-weighted probability density function of MAD in
figure 2 gives more inside information of mean age: the left and right peaks correspond to the
left and right sides of vessel, respectively.
MAD is successfully installed in ANSYS Fluent and excellent in unveiling the closed
circulations or the dead zones which are needed to eliminate in the design optimization. This
technique has large potential for numerous applications not only in mixing industries, but also in
material process and the other fluidic devices.
Key words: Mean Age Distribution, tracer species, mixing, design optimization


Figure 1: Configuration & mesh Figure 2: Probability density function of MAD


Figure 3: Velocity field Figure 4: Contour of MAD (blue color: 0 to 18800)

ACKNOWLEDMENT
This work has been supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-
2013R1A1A2A100057693) funded by the Ministry of Education and by Support Program for
Commercialization of R&D Outcomes (2013A000023) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and
Future Planning.
REFERENCES
[1] Danckwerts P.V. Continuous flow systems Distribution of residence times. Chem. Eng. Sci. 1953, 2:1-13.
[2] Liu M. and Tilton J.N. Spatial distributions of mean age and higher moments in steady continuous flows.
AIChE J. 2010, 56: 2561-2572.
[3] ANSYS Fluent UDF Manual V14.5, 2012.
inlet outlet