Analysis of the Mixing of a Newtonian Material with a Strongly Viscous Material using CFD Numerical Modelling.

This article deals with the mixing of a Newtonian material with a strongly viscous (nonNewtonian) material in a pipe with a static mixer. This problematic has a practical application in the food industry. CFD software ANSYS Fluent was used for numerical modeling. The mathematical model is defined using the basic balance equations, including the equation for species. The viscosity for a non-Newtonian highly viscous material (the working material) is defined using the Herschel-Bulkley model. A 3D computational model of a pipe with a static helical mixer is created in the DesignModeler program, which is part of the ANSYS software. The computational mesh was created in the Fluent Meshing program. The CFD modeling analysis is implemented for two different pipe diameters and different flow rates at the pipe inlet. The evaluation of the results is processed by the ANSYS Fluent program using the distribution of basic quantities and graphs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]