Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 42 (2022) 351–363

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Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering

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Full Length Article

Effect of impeller type and scale-up on spatial distribution of shear rate

in a stirred tank
Huina Wang 1,2, Xiaoxia Duan 1,2,⇑, Xin Feng 1,2, Zai-Sha Mao 1, Chao Yang 1,2,⇑
1
CAS Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
2
School of Chemical Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The main spatial distribution features of shear rate in a stirred tank operated with five different radial and
Received 7 January 2021 axial flow impellers were presented with particle image velocimetry (PIV) experiments. Not only the
Received in revised form 1 March 2021 average shear rate in the whole tank but also the local value in the vicinity of impeller increases linearly
Accepted 4 March 2021
with impeller speed. Furthermore, the shear coefficient (Ks,imp) at the impeller outlet is linearly related to
Available online 12 March 2021
the impeller flow number (Nq) and decreases with the increase of Nq in general at the constant power
consumption per unit volume (Pv). During scale-up based on the constant Pv and geometric similarity,
Keywords:
CFD results show that the volume-averaged shear rate (cavg) for RDT decreases faster than that of other
Particle image velocimetry
Shear rate distribution
impellers with the impeller tip velocity (Utip). The novel multi-blade combined (MBC) impeller with the
Constant power consumption per unit increased height-to-diameter ratio of the stirred tank is able to more effectively improve the distribution
volume uniformity of shear rate at the same Pv after scale-up. These studies provide a data basis for selecting the
Computational fluid dynamics impeller types and improving the shear rate environment in the large-scale stirred tank.
Scale-up Ó 2021 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press Co., Ltd. All
rights reserved.

1. Introduction
As one of the important hydrodynamic parameters in industrial
mixing, shear rate is related to the impeller type, geometric struc-
ture of the stirred tank, fluid rheology and impeller speed [1]. Shear
rate influences the apparent viscosity of the non-Newtonian fluid,
thereby affecting the power consumption, mixing characteristics
and mass transfer phenomena [2]. It also affects the activity of
enzyme [3] as well as size and structure of aggregates [4,5]. For
instance, shear rate can control crystallization by managing the
primary and secondary nucleation rates, thus better promoting
the more stable polymorphs [6]. The requirements on shear rate
characteristics produced by impellers are decided by the diversi-
fied mixing systems and mixing goals. For example, the animal cell
cultivation system needs uniformly distributed low shear rates
[7,8], because excessive shear rate can cause irreversible damage
to cells [9]. While in the gas-liquid stirred tank reactors, high shear
rates are demanded to disperse the bubbles and promote mass
transfer between phases [10], as reported by Dickey and Fasano
[11] that the maximum shear rate value multiplied by fluid viscos-
⇑ Corresponding authors at: CAS Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineer-
ing, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190,
China.
E-mail addresses: xxduan@ipe.ac.cn (X. Duan), chaoyang@ipe.ac.cn (C. Yang).
ity could control the final size of the dispersed gas/solid/liquid par-
ticles in continuous liquid phase. Therefore, the spatial distribution
characteristics of shear rate for different impellers, such as average
shear rate and its trend of change after scale-up, are of great signif-
icance to better understanding of the mixing process and guiding
the application of impellers in different industrial occasions.
The concept of average (effective) shear rate first came from
Metzner and Otto [12], who presumed that for non-Newtonian flu-
ids, the average shear rate near the impeller had a linear relation-
ship with impeller speed (N). Some authors have further
considered shear rate characteristics of non-Newtonian fluids, that
is, the relationship between the fluid rheological index and average
shear rate [13,14]. Wichterle et al. [15] adopted electrochemical
methods to measure the maximum shear rate of Rushton impeller
under turbulent flow conditions and found that the maximum
shear rate was several orders of magnitude larger than the average
shear rate. Dependent on the theoretical derivation, Sánchez Pérez
et al. [16] also obtained the linear relationship between average
shear rate and impeller speed in the laminar regime for both New-
tonian fluid and non-Newtonian power-law fluid in a stirred tank,
but the average shear rate was related to N3/(1+n) in turbulent con-
ditions (n is the rheological index). Although these studies show
the quantitative relationships between the characteristic shear rate
and related system parameters (such as impeller speed, rheological

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjche.2021.03.004
1004-9541/Ó 2021 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
352 H. Wang et al. / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 42 (2022) 351–363

index, etc.), they cannot give the shear rate distributions over the tain the similarity of relevant parameters after scale-up, but some-
whole tank. times it is not enough to ensure a satisfactory result because the
The development of advanced measurement technique repre- local hydrodynamics including shear intensity may also play an
sented by laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) and particle image important role [31]. So the trend of change in volume-averaged
velocimetry (PIV) provides favorable conditions for experimental shear rate with impeller tip velocity and the shear rate distribu-
detection of flow field in stirred tanks [17–19]. Some authors used tions in a scaled-up reactor are worth of attention.
LDV or PIV to study the shear rate distribution in stirred tanks In the present work, the PIV technique was used to measure the
equipped with a single impeller. Wu et al. [10] obtained the aver- shear rate distribution in a stirred tank with Rushton disk turbine
age shear rate at the impeller outlet plane by LDV, and found that (RDT), 45° pitched blade turbine pumping down (PBTD), 45°
the impeller shear coefficient was related to the flow number. pitched blade turbine pumping up (PBTU), centripetal turbine
Story et al. [20] used PIV to study the effect of rheological proper- (CT) and elephant ear impeller (EE) at the constant Pv. The spatial
ties (Newtonian fluid and non-Newtonian carboxymethyl cellulose distribution characteristics of shear rate for different impellers
solution (CMC)) and impeller speed on the flow field and shear rate were analyzed combined with discerning the differences of flow
distribution when agitated by a Prochem Maxflo T (PMT) impeller. fields. Both the average and local shear rates were correlated with
They found that the maximum shear rate appeared in the zone the impeller speed or the flow number. At the same time, by means
below the impeller, and at the same impeller speed, the maximum of CFD simulation, the trends of change in average shear rate and
shear rate in the CMC system was approximately twice that of in shear rate distribution in a stirred tank were focused on during
water. With the assistance of PIV, Ramsay et al. [21] obtained the scale-up based on constant Pv and/or geometric similarity. In addi-
flow field and shear rate in a Newtonian fluid and a viscoelastic tion, the dual-impeller combination and the novel multi-blade
fluid by using a ‘‘butterfly” impeller under laminar flow conditions. combined (MBC) impeller methods [32] were investigated to
In addition, the shear rate distributions for impellers with the adjust shear rate distribution in the larger stirred tank.
same flow pattern have been analyzed by other authors. Collignon
et al. [22] used PIV to investigate the shear rate distributions of
2. Materials and Methods
axial flow impellers at their respective critical suspension speeds,
and determined the impeller type that was more suitable for cell
2.1. Stirred tank and impeller configurations
culture. Sossa-Echeverria et al. [23] used both PIV measurement
and CFD simulation to explore the shear rate distributions of three
The experiments are carried out in a flat-bottomed cylindrical
eccentrically placed axial flow impellers at the same speed in a
stirred tank with internal diameter of T = 0.234 m. There are four
non-Newtonian fluid. The results indicated that shear rate distribu-
wall baffles equally spaced in the tank with a width of B = T/10.
tion of the impeller depended on the discharge flow structure of
The liquid height level is H = T. The structure of the stirred tank
the impeller, which was in turn affected by the operating condi-
is shown in Fig. 1. The deflection angle of the blades relative to
tions and the blade angle. Both radial and axial flow impellers
the disc for CT impeller is 45°, and the inclination angle of the
are widely applied in industrial projects, while there are few stud-
blades for EE impellers is also 45° (pumping down). The shaded
ies to compare their shear rate distributions in a stirred tank at the
area in Fig. 1 represents the measurement plane. In order to min-
constant Pv. As we all know, power consumption affects the heat
imize the refraction caused by the laser irradiation on the curved
and mass transfer processes in the stirred tank, and the cost of
surface of the stirred tank, it is placed in a 285 mm

power-related input accounts for a large proportion of the overall
285 mm
300 mm tank filled with deionized water. Five impellers
operating cost of an industrial project [24], so it is worth studying
with the diameter of D = T/3 are studied in the experiment, namely
shear rate distribution in the stirred tank at the same Pv.
Scale-up of reactors is a necessary step for applying laboratory
research results to industry, and it is also a key for large-scale cell
cultivation. For cell cultivation, the common problems in scale-up
include the slower cell growth and largely reduced survival rate.
The fundamental reason is the high sensitivity of animal cells to
shear stress [25]. Traditional scale-up methods consist of theoret-
ical, semi-theoretical, dimensional analysis and empirical methods
[26]. Due to the complexity of biological systems, the current com-
monly used method is still the empirical scale-up method. Param-
eters, such as impeller tip velocity Utip (pDN, D is the impeller
diameter), power consumption per unit volume (Pv), energy dissi-
pation rate (e), maximum shear rate (cmax) or average shear rate
(cavg) [27–29], are usually used to describe the shear environment
and selected as the scale-up criteria for bioreactors. Sieck et al. [29]
developed a scale-down model of hydrodynamic stress to investi-
gate the performance of CHO cells under simulated production
bioreactor conditions. They observed a slight decrease of mono-
clonal antibody production for cells because of the DNA damage
by the increased hydrodynamic stress. In order to predict the
impeller speed required to maintain the aggregate sizes in stem
cell culture, Borys et al. [30] used CFD to evaluate seven scale-up
parameters (i.e., Uavg, cavg, e, Re, Utip, P, and cmax), and concluded
that if the energy dissipation rate or maximum shear stress was
kept constant in from 10 ml to 100 ml stirred suspension bioreac-
tors, the aggregate size could be maintained the same after scale-
up. Obviously, there are many factors that affect the performance
of scaled-up bioreactors. Most studies are focused on how to main- Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of stirred tank.
 H. Wang et al. / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 42 (2022) 351–363 353

RDT, PBTD, PBTU, CT and EE impellers. The impeller clearance off give a clear and undistorted image of fluid flow. In this work, the
the tank bottom (C) is equal to T/3. The detailed structure diagrams laser plane through the tank axis is also place an angle of 5° off a
and geometric parameters of impellers are shown in Fig. 2 and baffle, as shown in Fig. 3(b). The measurement area is the half of
Table 1. The power consumption for stirring is measured by a tor- the tank, covering the plane clipped with 0 < r/T < 0.5 and 0 < z/
que sensor (SN-1050, Beijing Senso Zhongheng Technology Devel- H < 1, as shown in Fig. 1. Fast Fourier transform (FFT) cross-
opment Co.). The rotation direction of the impeller is clockwise. correlation method is used to interrogate the two successive
images to determine the velocity vector field. The selected interro-
gation area is 16
16 px, and the overlap area is 50% during the
2.2. PIV system
correlation. Depending on the impeller types and the correspond-
ing impeller speed (N), the time interval Dt is set to 400–
The 2D PIV system used in this work includes a dual head Nd:
1100 ls. Considering the accuracy of experimental data and the
YAG laser (Leibao Optoelectronics, pulse energy 120 mJ, pulse
efficiency of image processing, 215 pairs of the collected images
width 6 ns, laser wavelength 532 nm), a high-speed digital charge
are handled to acquire the time-averaged flow field for each
coupled device (CCD) camera (Imperx, 2048
2048 px), a syn-
condition.
chronization controller and the commercial software MicroVec-
In the Cartesian coordinate system, the shear rate in the stirred
V3 (to collect experimental data and control laser/camera synchro-
tank [34] is expressed as
nization). The adopted tracer particles are polyamide seeding par-
" 
2 ) 2 #0:5
ticles (PSP) with a diameter of about 10 lm and the density of @U x
2

@U y
2

@U z


@U x @U y
2

@U x @U z
2

@U y @U z
c¼ 2 þ þ þ þ þ þ þ þ
1030 kgm3, quite close to the liquid density used in this work, @x @y @z @y @x @z @x @z @y
to track the liquid velocity. In order to prevent the reflection of ð1Þ
laser from damaging the high-speed camera CCD, impellers and
the shaft are painted to black. While in the cylindrical coordinate system, the shear rate is
h n 2 1 2  z 2 o  @ U h  1 
Due to the mismatch of refractive index between the experi- @U @U h @U r 2
c¼ 2 @r
r
þ þ Urr þ @U
r @h @z
þ r @r r þ r @h
þ
ment fluid (water) and Perspex baffle, distortions in images by ð2Þ
the baffle can be observed [33]. So, the vertical laser plane is placed 1 @Uz @Uh 2 @Ur @Uz 2 i0:5
r @h
þ @z þ @z þ @r
by Gabriele et al. [33] at the angle of 5° from the adjacent baffle to

(a) RDT (b) PBTD (c) PBTU (d) CT (e) EE

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of impellers.

Table 1
Impeller geometric parameters

Impeller type Impeller diameter D/mm Blade length l/mm Blade width w/mm Blade thickness d/mm Disk diameter d/mm Sector width w/(°)
RDT 80.0 20.0 16.0 2.0 60.0 -
PBTD 80.0 28.3 16.0 2.0 - -
PBTU 80.0 28.3 16.0 2.0 - -
CT 80.0 20.0 16.0 2.0 60.0 -
EE 80.0 - - 2.0 - 120

(a) Experimental setup (b) Top view of laser plane

Fig. 3. Setup of PIV experiment.
354 H. Wang et al. / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 42 (2022) 351–363

Because the experiments are performed using a 2D PIV instru- where NPS and NPL, NS and NL, DS and DL, and TS and TL are the impel-
ment, the third component of velocity, that is, the tangential veloc- ler power numbers, impeller speeds, impeller diameters and stirred
ity cannot be measured. Eq. (2) needs the approximate estimation tank diameters before and after scale-up, respectively. Since the
of the 3rd component. As reported by Story et al. [20], Eq. (2) can be flow regime during scale-up in this study is fully-developed turbu-
approximated to lent, the power number tends to be constant. Eq. (4) can be simpli-
(
2
2
2
2 )0:5 fied as
@U r Ur @U z @U r @U z
c¼ 2 þ2 þ2 þ þ ð3Þ N3S D5S N3L D5L
@r r @z @z @r ¼ ð5Þ
T 3S T 3L
The power consumption per unit volume is specified to be
2.3. CFD simulation
178.0 Wm3. The corresponding impeller speeds of different
impellers for the stirred tank (T = 0.234 m) are shown in the second
The commercial CFD software ANSYS Fluent is employed for
column of Table 2, and the air is not drawn into the free surface of
simulation. The rotation of the impeller is dealt by the multi-
liquid phase under these conditions. The volume of the stirred tank
reference frame (MRF) method. The standard k-e turbulence model
(T = 0.234 m) is enlarged to 30, 80 and 260 times based on the con-
and the standard wall function are used to simulate the turbulent
stant power per unit volume rule. And the corresponding impeller
flow field. Momentum, turbulent kinetic energy and energy dissi-
speeds of five different impellers are calculated with Eq. (5). As
pation rate equations are solved using the second-order upwind
shown in Table 2, the operating speeds are all within a reasonable
difference scheme, and the SIMPLE algorithm is used for the
range after scale-up. The variations of shear rate on scale-up are
pressure-velocity coupling.
analyzed with the numerical simulation in Section 4.
Four different sizes of stirred tanks are investigated with diam-
eters of 0.234 m, 0.72 m, 1.0 m and 1.5 m in the CFD simulation.
3.2. Time-averaged flow field
The whole stirred tank is selected as the computational domain.
The rotating zone including the impeller is divided by tetrahedral
Fig. 5 shows the time-averaged flow fields of different impellers
mesh, and the outer zone which enclosed the rotating zone is
in the stirred tank (T = 0.234 m). For RDT (Fig. 5(a)), the fluid
divided by hexahedral mesh. The details about grid independence
stream is ejected from the impeller to the tank side-wall, and then
are described in Supplementary Material.
the radial jet goes up and down forming the upper and lower flow
loops. Considering that the top of the tank is a free liquid surface,
3. Experimental Results and Discussion the distribution of two loops is not completely symmetrical on
both sides of the impeller.
3.1. Impact of impeller types on power consumption Compared with RDT, CT takes advantage of the deflection angle
of the blades relative to the disc to push fluid to produce cen-
The power consumptions of different impeller types are mea- tripetal flow [36]. Although the globally similar flow patterns are
sured by the shaft-torque method. Fig. 4 shows the variation of observed in Figs. 5(a) and (d), the velocity fields of CT and RDT pre-
power consumption per unit volume (Pv) versus impeller speed. sent some local differences, as for instance, the centers of the upper
It shows that for RDT, the power consumption is the maximum, and lower vortices are closer for CT. As shown in Fig. 5, at the same
and the counterpart of PBTU is close to that of EE at the same Pv, the maximum velocity of CT is different from that of other
speed. The sequence by decreasing Pv values at the same N is: impellers due to the unequal impeller speeds. Li et al. [37] found
RDT > CT > PBTU EE > PBTD. that the macro-mixing time of CT was shorter than that of RDT
The scale-up rule based on the constant power consumption per at the same relatively low speed, and tended to be similar with
unit volume is tested in this work, which is expressed as [35] the increase of impeller speed. CT’s speed is larger than RDT’s at
the same Pv, suggesting that its macro-mixing time is shorter. In
addition, the flow number Nq, which indicates the ability of axial
NPS N3S D5S NPL N 3L D5L
¼ ð4Þ recirculation, is calculated for different impellers (Table 3). As
T 3S T 3L against RDT, the flow number of CT increases by 5.17%.
The equations of the flow number Nq are as follows:
Q rv Q zv
Nq ¼ 3
or N q ¼ ð6Þ
ND ND3
1600 RDT Z z2
PBTD Q rv ¼ 2pr U r dz ð7Þ
1400 z1
PBTU
1200 CT
1000 EE
Pv/W·m-3

800
Table 2
600 Impeller speeds under the designated specific power consumption (T1 = 0.234 m,
T2 = 0.72 m, T3 = 1.0 m, T4 = 1.5 m, D = T/3, C = T/3, Pv = 178.0 Wm3).
400
178.0 W·m-3
Impeller type Impeller speed N/rmin1
200
T1 T2 T3 T4
0
300 400 500 600 700 800 RDT 330 157 126 96
PBTD 455 217 174 133
N/r·min-1 PBTU 442 211 169 130
CT 400 191 153 117
Fig. 4. Power consumption per unit volume versus impeller speed (T = 0.234 m, EE 443 211 170 130
D = T/3, C = T/3).
 H. Wang et al. / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 42 (2022) 351–363 355

(a) RDT (b) PBTD (c) PBTU

(d) CT (e) EE
Fig. 5. Time-averaged velocity fields of different impellers (unit: ms1, T = 0.234 m, D = T/3, C = T/3, Pv = 178.0 Wm3).

Table 3 the results of Gabriele et al. [33] What’s more, from Figs. 5(b)
Flow number Nq, shear number Cs and average shear rate in the whole tank cavg for and (c), it can be seen that at the same Pv, the velocity near the bot-
different impeller types (T = 0.234 m, D = T/3, C = T/3, Pv = 178.0 Wm3) tom of the stirred tank of PBTD is significantly greater than that of
Impeller type Nq Cs cavg/s1 the PBTU.
Fig. 5(e) is the flow field of EE, which is similar to that of PBTD.
RDT 0.58 2.43 16.82
PBTD 0.75 1.76 16.46
However, the downward velocity of EE is greater, showing obvious
PBTU 0.70 1.81 16.93 axial mixing characteristics, which is more conducive to suspend
CT 0.61 2.00 15.69 solid particles, such as the micro-carriers (the optimal densities
EE 0.87 1.81 18.37 of micro-carriers are 1.03–1.05 gml1 [38], slightly greater than
that of water) from the bottom of the tank. And the flow number
of EE is also greater than PBTD’s (Table 3). Evaluated from the com-
Z D
2 parison of the overall velocity flow field and flow numbers for the
Q zv ¼ U z 2prdr ð8Þ
0
single-impeller at the same Pv, the superiority of studied impellers
is as follows: EE > PBTD > PBTU > CT > RDT.
where Qrv is the radial impeller flow rate, Qzv is the axial impeller
flow rate, z1 is the lowest height of blades, and z2 is the highest 3.3. Evaluation index for shear performance of impeller
height of blades.
Under the operation of PBTD, as shown in Fig. 5(b), the fluid is Based on the relationship between the shear rate experienced
discharged from an angle of about 45° below the impeller at a max- by the fluid in the stirred tank and the power consumption per unit
imum speed of about 0.47 Utip, and turns upwards after encounter- volume, the dimensionless shear number Cs is defined as [39]
ing the bottom of the tank and the baffles, forming the main loop. sffiffiffiffiffi
In addition, there is a small secondary induced circulation region 1 Pv
between the impeller and the bottom of the tank. The flow direc-
Cs ¼ ð9Þ
N l
tion of the main circulation loop formed by PBTU is opposite to that
of PBTD, i.e., PBTU develops an upward jet above the impeller. where l is the fluid viscosity (mPas1). Table 3 shows the shear
Besides, compared with the main circulation, the speed of upper number of impellers at Pv = 178.0 Wm3. For the five types of
flow circulation loop is smaller for PBTU, typically ~ 0.1 Utip. The impellers studied in this work, the sequence of Cs values is:
time-averaged flow fields of PBTD and PBTU are consistent with RDT > CT > PBTU EE > PBTD, which is inverse to the impeller speed.
356 H. Wang et al. / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 42 (2022) 351–363

As listed in Table 3, the shear number Cs of radial flow impellers 3.4. Shear rate distribution
(i.e., RDT and CT) is larger than that of axial flow impellers. If the
shear performance is evaluated with Cs, the shear level of RDT is Fig. 6 shows the contour plots of shear rates for different impel-
the strongest, and that of PBTD is relatively weak. lers under the same Pv. As demonstrated in Figs. 6(a) and (d), for

(a) RDT

(b) PBTD

(c) PBTU

(d) CT

(e) EE

Fig. 6. Contour plots of shear rate for five impellers (unit: s1, T = 0.234 m, D = T/3, C = T/3, Pv = 178.0 Wm3).
 H. Wang et al. / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 42 (2022) 351–363 357

RDT and CT, the higher shear rates are located at the blade edges,
impeller discharge region, baffle and the tank wall. In the discharge
region near the blade tips, shear rates are asymmetrically dis-
tributed along the mounted height of the impeller; in the upper
circulation loop, high shear rates prevail over more area. For axial
flow impellers (PBTD, PBTU and EE), the change of shear rate distri-
butions is attributed to the variation of flow patterns. Such high
shear rates are mainly generated at the edges of the blade, impeller
swept zone, the discharge flow region above or below the impeller
and the tank wall. Further, in the vicinity of the baffle edges, shear
rates are relatively small compared with the radial impellers.
Stathopoulos and Hellums [40] reported that application of
mechanical shear stress of 2.6 Nm2 or more would reduce the
viability of flat monolayers of human embryonic kidney cells (the
density q of the culture being close to that of water). While Wolf
et al. [41] found that when the shear stress was less than
0.092 Nm2 (corresponding to a shear rate of about 90 s1), the
baby hamster kidney (BHK-21) cells could proliferate; when the
shear stress was 0.051 Nm2 (corresponding to a shear rate of
about 50 s1), it could provide a good shearing environment for
BHK-21 cells growth. Therefore, the contour plots of shear rate dis-
tribution displayed in Fig. 6 are divided into four parts according to
the local shear rate, namely 030 s1, 3050 s1, 5090 s1
and > 90 s1. It can be seen that most of the shear rate values in
the stirred tank for five impellers are concentrated in the range
of 0–30 s1. For RDT and CT impellers, the higher shear rate values
are distributed near the blades (r/T = 00.36, z/H = 0.310.37); for
PBTD and EE, the shear rate values in the area below the blades
(r/T = 00.26, z/H = 00.43) are higher, and the closer the region
is to the blades, the greater the shear rate is; while for PBTU, the
the probabilities of shear rate for RDT and CT are relatively close;
when shear rate is between 10 and 20 s1, the probabilities of
shear rate for RDT, PBTD and EE are similar. Compared with RDT
and PBTD, the shear rate of CT accounts for a higher probability
in the range of 10–20 s1. In addition, the probabilities of shear rate
over 30 s1 for all the impellers are also discussed in Fig. 8. It can be
seen that in the high shear rate range, the probabilities of shear
rate over 90 s1 for the radial impellers are smaller than the corre-
sponding values for the axial impellers.
Therefore, comprehensively considering shear rate distributions
of impellers in different ranges and average shear rate (Table 3) at
the same Pv, the superiority of impellers is ranked as
CT > PBTD > RDT > PBTU > EE for the shear-sensitive systems. This
result is different from the evaluation by shear number Cs, which
indicates that in actual operating conditions, Cs cannot be used
solely to evaluate the shear performance of impeller.
Besides, the correlations of shear coefficient Ks,imp with impeller
flow number Nq are presented in Fig. 9. The data are obtained by
calculating the area-weighted shear rate cavg,s at the flow exit plane
of impellers, within the impeller diameter periphery, so Ks,imp
could be used to quantitatively describe the shear environment
of the impeller zone. The calculations of Ks,imp and Nq are per-
formed as follows:
Radial flow impellers
Pt1
cavg;s j¼1 ðzjþ1 zj Þðcj þ cjþ1 Þ
K s; imp ¼ ¼ ð10Þ
N 2Nðzt  z1 Þ
20%
Probability distribution of shear rate

zone of higher shear rate values is located above the blades

(r/T = 00.26, z/H = 0.250.6). In addition, for the studied impel- >150 s-1 90–150 s-1
lers, the areas with shear rates more than 90 s1 are mostly located 50–90 s-1 30–50 s-1
at the edge of blades, baffles, and tank wall or bottom, occupying a 15%
relatively small area, and for EE, shear rates near the tank bottom
are significantly higher than the other four impellers.
As mentioned above, most of shear rates in the stirred tank for 10%
impellers are less than 30 s1. The probabilities of shear rates less
than 30 s1 are 87.2%, 87.0%, 86.3%, 85.5% and 83.2% for CT, RDT,
PBTD, PBTU and EE impellers respectively. As animal cells have 5%
no cell wall and are very sensitive to shearing, impellers with
low and moderate shear should be selected in the animal cell
bioreactor [42]. In order to analyze the shear environment in more 0%
detail, the probability distributions of shear rates less than 30 s1 RDT PBTD PBTU CT EE
for five impellers are plotted in Fig. 7. The more the probabilities
of low shear rate occupies, the more moderate shear environment Fig. 8. Probability distributions of shear rate over 30 s1 for five impellers
(T = 0.234 m, D = T/3, C = T/3, Pv = 178.0 Wm3).
is. It can be seen from Fig. 7 that when shear rate is less than 10 s1,

10%
RDT
8% PBTD
Probability distribution

PBTU
CT
6% EE

4%

2%

0%
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
-1
Shear rate /s
1
Fig. 7. Probability distributions of shear rate less than 30 s for five impellers (T = 0.234 m, D = T/3, C = T/3, Pv = 178.0 Wm3).
358 H. Wang et al. / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 42 (2022) 351–363

20 speed, the average shear rate of RDT is the largest; while the aver-
Wu et al. 2006 (Radial Impellers) age shear rate of CT impeller is relatively close to that of PBTU and
Wu et al. 2006 (Axial Impellers) EE. Different from Ks,imp, Ks,avg represents the average shear envi-
16 RDT ronment of the whole tank. Besides, the effect of impeller speed
CT Ks,imp=14Nq on the probability distributions of shear rate for CT impeller is also
PBTD concentrated on. As the probabilities of shear rates over 90 s1 for
12
PBTU
all impeller speeds are no more than 3.0%, the range of shear rates
Ks,imp

EE
less than 90 s1 is only plotted in Fig. 11. It can be seen from Fig. 11
8 Ks,imp=7Nq
that the maximum probability of shear rate is decreased while the
corresponding value of shear rate shifts towards the higher one
4 with the increase of impeller speed.
For CT impeller, the variations of the radial profiles of shear rate
with the impeller speed at different axial positions are also
0
0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 extracted. As shown in Fig. 12, in the region close to the impeller
Nq (z/H = 1/6, 1/3 and 1/2), small peaks appear in the vicinity of baffle
edges because the high speed impeller stream impinges on the baf-
Fig. 9. Variation of shear coefficient with impeller flow number (turbulent flow) fles; while in the region away from the impeller (z/H = 2/3), shear
(T = 0.234 m, D = T/3, C = T/3, Pv = 178.0 Wm3). rate is hardly affected by the baffles. In addition, at the impeller
plane (z/H = 1/3), shear rate quickly decreases until peaks appear
near the baffle and the tank wall. However, the shear rate is gener-
Axial flow impellers
ally low away from the impeller, and the effects of radial distance
Pt1
j¼1 ðr jþ1  r 2j Þðcj þ cjþ1 Þ
cavg;s 2 (r) and impeller speed (N) on the shear rate are not obvious in the
K s; imp ¼ ¼ ð11Þ bulk.
N 2Nðr2t  r 21 Þ
Furthermore, the axial distribution characteristics of shear rate
where j is the j-th measuring point, and t is the number of measur- at different radial positions are also investigated. It can be seen
ing points at the flow exit plane of impellers. And the summations from Fig. 13, at r/T = 0.19, 0.22 and 0.28, all the variations of shear
are carried out within the periphery of the impeller blades. rate exhibit the bimodal distribution, and the lower peak values
It is obviously concluded that Ks,imp is linearly related to the are slightly smaller than the upper ones. With the increase of r
impeller flow number. For radial impellers, Ks,imp  14Nq; for axial and N, the axial positions of upper peaks gradually moves above
impellers, Ks,imp  7Nq, which are in good agreement with data the impeller blades, but the axial positions of lower peaks are
from Wu et al. [10] And we could also find that at the same Pv always inside the blade range (as the shaded rectangle shown in
for five different impellers studied in this work, Ks,imp decreases Fig. 13). The local minimum points, i.e., the valleys of shear rate
with the increase of impeller flow number in general. are slightly above the impeller center plane (z/H = 0.33). This phe-
nomenon is consistent with what found by Wu et al. [43] that the
3.5. Effect of impeller speed on shear rate axial position of the maximum average velocity operated by RDT
appears above the height of impeller center. This may be caused
Fig. 10 shows the variation of average shear rate in the whole by the fact that the impeller is not installed symmetrically in the
tank with the increase of impeller speed. The linear relationships stirred tank and the tank top is a free surface. After further
between average shear rate and impeller speed are listed in Table 4. research, it is found that the peak and valley values of shear rate
It can be seen from Fig. 10 and Table 4 that at the constant impeller have the linear relationship with impeller speed. The variations
of local shear-related coefficient Ks with the radial distance are
illustrated in Table 5. It can be concluded that the coefficients
decrease as the radial positions are away from the impeller.
Besides, the coefficients of the upper peak values are a little larger
than that of the lower ones.

4. Simulation Results and Discussion

In order to investigate the change trends of volume-averaged

shear rate and shear rate distribution after scale-up, CFD
simulation is applied in this work. The validation of CFD model is
in Supplementary Material.

4.1. Scale-up based on geometric similarity

Previous work by Wu et al. [10] found that the average shear

Fig. 10. Evolution of average shear rate in the whole tank with impeller speed
rate at the 3-blades PBTD impeller outlet decreases with the
(T = 0.234 m, D = T/3, C = T/3).
increase of impeller diameter on scaling-up by the rule of constant

Table 4
Relationship between average shear rate in the whole tank and impeller speed (T = 0.234 m, D = T/3, C = T/3)

Impeller type RDT PBTD PBTU CT EE

Ks,avg 2.73 2.13 2.28 2.39 2.35
R2 0.9963 0.9997 0.9994 0.9991 0.9983
 H. Wang et al. / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 42 (2022) 351–363 359

Fig. 11. Variation of probability distributions of shear rate with impeller speed (CT impeller, T = 0.234 m, D = T/3, C = T/3).

other impellers with the impeller tip velocity (Utip). This provides
N=200 N=300 guidance for estimating the volume-averaged shear rate in the
N=400 N=500 whole tank for different impellers after scale-up by the rule of con-
120
stant Pv. Besides, the volume-averaged shear rate based on the
100
80 same N scale-up rule remains almost constant as displayed in
60 Fig. 14. Hence, during the geometric similarity scale-up, the
40
volume-averaged shear rate is mainly related to the impeller speed
20
z/H=2/3 0 and impeller type, not to the scale.
120
100 As reported by Li et al. [34] and Wu et al. [10] the maximum
80 shear rate in the whole tank mainly locates at the impeller blades
60
tip and increases with Utip. Therefore, a wider distribution of shear
-1

40
shear rate/s

20 rates is inevitably generated after scale-up by the constant Pv rule.

z/H=1/2 0
120
Some studies show that the maximum shear rate is not the key fac-
100 tor causing the cell damage because of the rare chance of a cell
80 encountering the maximum shear rate zone [28,44], the overall
60
40
distribution of shear rate should be paid attention to. As for the dis-
20 tributions in the high shear rate range are not analyzed in consid-
z/H=1/3 0 eration of the accuracy of standard k-e turbulence model and the
120
100 great proportion of low shear rate. Taking CT and EE impellers
80
for example, the shear rate distributions in the range of 0–30 s1
60
40 during scale-up are displayed in Fig. 15. It could be seen that a
20 higher probability of shear rate shift towards the low shear rate
z/H=1/6 0
range. The effect of the change of shear rate environment on the
cell growth and the size distributions of dispersed phase drops,
crystallization etc. should be further investigated combining with
the local mixing intensify and circulation rate of flow.
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
r/T

Fig. 12. Variation of the radial profiles of shear rate with impeller speed at different
axial positions (CT impeller, T = 0.234 m, D = T/3, C = T/3).
power consumption per unit volume. However, for the full-scale
stirred tank design and selection of impeller types, it is also inter-
esting to estimate and compare the overall average shear rate for
different impellers.
In this work, the change trends of volume-averaged shear rate
in the whole tank and the shear rate distributions of RDT, PBTD,
CT and EE impellers are first focused on after scale-up by the con-
stant Pv rule. When scaling-up stirred tanks with geometric simi-
larity, impeller speed generally decreases and the impeller tip
velocity increases. Fig. 14 demonstrates the variation of volume-
averaged shear rate in the whole tank with the impeller tip velocity
based on the constant Pv. It can be seen from Fig. 14 that the
volume-averaged shear rate for RDT decreases faster than that of
4.2. Improvement of shear rate distribution after scale-up
In view of the significant changes in shear rate distributions
after scale-up based on both the constant Pv and geometric similar-
ity, the height-to-diameter of stirred tank and impeller types are
then adjusted to increase the average shear rate and narrow the
distribution of shear rate as shown in Fig. 16. In the case of a
large-scale stirred tank with T = H = 1.0 m, T is reduced to
0.874 m when the height-to-diameter ratio of stirred tank is
increased to 1.5 but the tank volume remains constant. Besides,
except the single CT impeller, the dual-CT impellers and a novel
MBC [32] are used to maintain the similarity of shear rate distribu-
tion. The detailed structure of MBC is illustrated in the previous
work by Xu et al. [32] The impeller speeds for dual-CT impellers
and MBC are 170 and 57 rmin1 based on the constant Pv, respec-
tively, according to the power consumption from corresponding
simulations. The distributions of shear rate less than 30 s1 for
these systems are compared in the Fig. 16. It is clear that the prob-
360 H. Wang et al. / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 42 (2022) 351–363

Fig. 13. Variation of the axial profiles of shear rate with impeller speed at different radial positions (CT impeller, T = 0.234 m, D = T/3, C = T/3, the dotted line represents the
height of the impeller center, and the shaded rectangle covers the height range of the blades).

Table 5
Relationship between the peak and valley values of shear rate at different radial positions and impeller speed (CT impeller, T = 0.234 m, D = T/3, C = T/3)

r/T Valley value of c Lower peak value of c Upper peak value of c

2 2
Ks R Ks R Ks R2
0.19 6.02 0.9973 14.27 0.9973 17.03 0.9990
0.22 5.36 0.9982 11.41 0.9994 12.59 0.9988
0.28 2.77 0.9970 7.70 0.9991 9.10 0.9986

ability distributions of 2CT-L and CT-L systems tend to be same.

Fig. 14. Variation of volume-averaged shear rate with impeller tip velocity after
scale-up based on constant Pv or constant N (geometric similarity) (T = 0.234, 0.72,
1.0 and 1.5 m, D = T/3, C = T/3, Pv = 178.0 Wm3).
While the shear rate distribution of the novel MBC-L system is clo-
ser to that of CT impeller of small scale. This attributes that the
blades of MBC are arranged as evenly as possible in the tank lead-
ing to an obvious improvement in the turbulent kinetic energy dis-
tribution uniformity with higher turbulent intensity [32].
Furthermore, the maximum shear rate for MBC in the whole tank
does not exceed that of CT-S, because the sequence of impeller
tip velocity at the same Pv for four systems is as follows: single
CT impeller after scale-up (CT-L) > dual-CT impellers combination
after scale-up (2CT-L) > CT impeller before scale-up (CT-S) > MBC
impeller after scale-up (MBC-L). As shown in Fig. 17, the probabil-
ity of shear rate over 90 s1 of MBC-L is considerably reduced by
contrast with 2CT-L and CT-L after scale-up. In general, the phe-
nomenon, that the lower volume-averaged shear rate and higher
maximum shear rate after scale-up based on the constant Pv and
geometric similarity, is improved with the assistance of MBC.
 H. Wang et al. / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 42 (2022) 351–363 361

25% 3.0%

Probability distribution of shear rate

CT
T1 >150 s-1 90–150 s-1
T2 -1
20% 2.5% 50–90 s 30–50 s-1
Probability distribution

T3
T4
15% 2.0%

10% 1.5%

5% 1.0%

0% 0.5%
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Shear rate/s-1
0.0%
CT-L 2CT-L MBC
(a) CT
1
Fig. 17. Probability distributions of shear rate over 30 s of different scale-up
25% improvement methods at the constant Pv (CT-L, H = T = 1.0 m, D = T/3; 2CT-L,
T1 T = 0.874 m, H = 1.5 T, D = T/3, C = DC = T/3; MBC-L, T = 0.874 m, H = 1.5 T, D = T/2,
EE
20% T2 Pv = 178.0 Wm3).
Probability distribution

T3
T4
15%
higher concentrated shear rate zones provide reference locations
of the feed points for fast-reacting systems. Considering the shear
10%
rate spatial distribution and the average shear rate in the whole
tank at the same Pv, CT impeller with higher Nq and more moderate
5%
shear environment is superior than RDT for shear-sensitive sys-
tems. Besides, in the vicinity of CT impeller discharge zone, the
0%
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 axial profile of local shear rate exhibits the bimodal distribution
Shear rate/s-1 at different radial positions, and the peak and valley values of shear
rate all have the linear relationship with the impeller speed.
(b) EE Among the investigated axial impellers, EE owns the strongest cir-
culation ability than PBTD and PBTU. Despite the similar axial-flow
Fig. 15. Variations of shear rate distribution after scale-up (T1 = 0.234 m,
T2 = 0.72 m, T3 = 1.0 m, T4 = 1.5 m, D = T/3, C = T/3, Pv = 178.0 Wm3). patterns are generated, the local high shear rates are localized in
the impeller swept region rather than the impeller blades for PBTD
and PBTU. And at the same Pv, shear coefficient at the impeller out-
5. Conclusions let decreases with the increase of impeller flow number in general
for studied impellers.
In this work, the shear rate distribution characteristics in the After scale-up by the rule of constant power consumption per
stirred tank equipped with five different impellers at the same Pv unit volume and geometric similarity, it is found that the
are focused on by using PIV, which are meaningful to understand volume-averaged shear rate for RDT decreases faster than that of
the magnitude and location of shear rate in the stirred tank. The other impellers with the impeller tip velocity. Besides, the proba-
general distribution characteristics of shear rate are related to flow bilities of shear rate in the low shear rate range increase, mean-
patterns. For radial impellers (RDT and CT), the larger shear rates while, the maximum shear rate around the blade tips also
are distributed around the blades; for PBTD, PBTU and EE, larger increases with the increase of impeller tip velocity. The dual-CT
shear rates are located in the impeller discharge region. These impellers and a novel MBC are further adopted with the increase

Fig. 16. Probability distributions of shear rate less than 30 s1 of different scale-up improvement methods at the constant Pv (CT-S, H = T = 0.234 m, D = T/3; CT-L,
H = T = 1.0 m, D = T/3; 2CT-L, T = 0.874 m, H = 1.5 T, D = T/3, C = DC = T/3; MBC-L, T = 0.874 m, H = 1.5 T, D = T/2, Pv = 178.0 Wm3).
362 H. Wang et al. / Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering 42 (2022) 351–363

of the height-to-diameter ratio of the stirred tank. We find that the cj local shear rate value of the j-th measuring point, s1
novel MBC impeller is contributed to improving the distribution cmax maximum shear rate, s1
uniformity of shear rate after scale-up based on the constant Pv. d blade thickness, mm
These results are expected to provide a reference for selecting e energy dissipation rate, m2s3
the impeller types and matching the shear rate environment in h circumferential direction in the cylindrical coordinate
large-scale reactors in different applications. l fluid viscosity, mPas1
q fluid density, kgm3
Declaration of Competing Interest w sector width, (°)

The authors declare that they have no known competing finan- Subscripts
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared L after scale-up
to influence the work reported in this paper. S before scale-up

Acknowledgements
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