Mixing and Agitation

• Mixing and agitation are two unit operations that have become synonymous
and a hard distinction between the two is difficult.

• Agitation generally involves a single phase which is forced by mechanical Mixing

means to flow in a circulatory or other pattern inside a vessel.

• Mixing refers to inter-dispersion of two or more phases such as suspending

particles in a liquid (solid-liquid mixing), blending of two miscible liquids
(homogenizing), inter-dispersion of two immiscible liquids to form emulsions
(Figure 1), mixing of dry powders and granular solids (solid-solid mixing) etc.

• Most of the process equipment like floatation cells, reactors, crystallizers

etc., employ agitation and mixing by one method or the other, so this has
become omnipresent in process industries.
Figure 1. Oil water emulsions
 Mixing/Agitation processes
• Agitation can be achieved by using mechanical impellers or
by pneumatic means (by injecting air under pressure).
Fig. CSTR
• Impellers used for agitation are in essence, a pump impeller,
operating without the casing and undirected input and
output flows.

• Jet mixing or injection mixing, used for mixing of

combustible gases before injection or liquid-liquid systems,
or injecting one of the liquids through a fine orifice into a
flowing stream of other. Fig. Jet mixing

Fig. Solid-liquid mixing

Fig. Pump impeller Fig. Impeller for agitation/mixing
 Agitated vessels

• The agitation tank’s bottom is rounded, not flat, to eliminate sharp

corners or regions into which the fluid currents would not penetrate.
• The impellers in the tank cause the liquid to circulate through the vessel
and eventually return to the impeller.
• Axial flow impellers have their blades making an angle less than 90 o with
the plane of rotation, produces currents parallel to impeller shaft. Ex:
propellers, fan turbines, pitched paddles etc.
• Propeller impellers employ axial flow to achieve mixing (Fig.1, next slide)
• Radial flow impellers have blades which make 90o angle with the plane of
rotation and they create currents in the liquid in a tangential or radial
direction. Ex: paddles (except pitched paddles), turbines (except fan
turbines) etc.
Fig. Typical agitation process vessel
• Turbine and paddle impellers are an example of radial flow impellers.
(Fig.2, next slide)
 Flow pattern in an agitated tank

• Propellers being axial flow, drive the liquid straight down to the bottom, from where it spreads radially, and
then flows up to the suction of the impeller.
• Thus, they are useful when strong vertical currents are desired such as in solid-liquid mixing when heavy solid
particles are to be kept in suspension.
• Turbines produce radial currents in a agitator. They generate two separate circulation currents.

Baffles are employed to reduce the

tangential flow which might promote
vortex formation and separation
instead of mixing.

Fig 1. Flow pattern (baffled tank, Fig 2. Flow pattern (unbaffled tank,
propeller agitator) turbine agitator)
 Undesired flow patterns and prevention
• Radial and axial (or longitudinal) flows are advantageous since they provide the necessary flow for mixing
action.
• However, tangential flow (follows a circular path around the shaft) is undesirable.
• There are three major reasons for that:
• (i) It creates a vortex on the liquid surface which creates stratification at various levels preventing longitudinal
flow between levels,
• (ii) In solid-liquid mixing this can throw the solid particles outwards from where they can settle down in the
tank, causing separation instead of mixing,
• (iii) The relative motion between the impeller blades and liquid decreases due to the swirl occurring in the
same direction as the blades. This reduces the amount of the power absorbed by the liquid from the moving
blades.
• The best way to do this is to use baffles which impede rotational flow without affecting radial or longitudinal
flow.
• Longitudinal baffles (normally four used, width: 1/12th-1/18th of the diameter) are vertical strips fixed
perpendicular to the tank wall.
• Another way to do it is mounting the impeller off-centre and slightly tilted.
• Also, side entering propellers can be used in a comparatively larger tank which avoids the use of baffles.
 Flow number
• Flow number, NQ = q/(nDa3), is a constant which is unique to each type of
impeller.
• It arises from proportionality between volumetric flowrate generated by
the impeller (measured at the tip of the blades as flow leaving the
impeller) to the cube of impeller diameter and rate of rotation of the
impeller.
• Propeller pitch: The distance the fluid is moved forward per rotation.
• Pitch ratio: The ratio of the distance the fluid is moved forward per Fig. Propeller blade
rotation to propeller diameter. Sometimes, referred to as pitch itself.
• Square pitch propeller: The square pitch propeller has a pitch ratio of 1:1
which means for each rotation fluid is moved forward by an amount
equal to its diameter.
• For the design of baffled agitated vessel, the following are the values of
flow number:

Fig. Propeller pitch

 Agitator design
• The measurements of an agitator, its location, vessel proportions, the number and proportions
of baffles collectively influence the circulation rate of the liquid, the velocity patterns, and the
power consumed.
• As a starting point in agitator design problems, the agitator of the type shown in Figure 1 is used.
Da, Diameter of the agitator Width, W and length, L
(turbine, in this case) of the blade

H, Height of the liquid

in the vessel

Fig 1. Measurement
of agitator

Fig. Typical proportions of the agitator J, Baffle thickness

(also called shape factors)
Da, Distance of impeller
Dt, Vessel diameter from the bottom
Appendix
 Impellers for liquids of moderate viscosity
Fig. Fan turbine

Fig. Impellers for liquids of moderate viscosity: (a) three-

blade marine propeller, (b) simple straight blade
turbine/paddle impeller, (c) disk turbine, (d) concave-
blade CD-6 impeller, and (e) pitched paddle.
Fig. Marine propellers of a famous ship Back
 Power correlations
• To estimate the power required to rotate a given impeller at a given speed, empirical
correlations of power (or power number) with the other variables of the system are needed.
• The form of such correlation can be found by dimensional analysis.
• The variables that enter the analysis are the important measurements of tank and impeller, the
viscosity ‘μ’ and the density ‘ρ’ of the liquid, and impeller speed ‘n’.
• Acceleration of gravity ‘g’ also has to be considered a variable here as liquid has to be lifted if
there is swirling.

Fig. Measurement
of agitator

Fig. Typical proportions of the agitator

Pumps

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