CFD study of the effect of Baffles on the energy consumption and the flow structure in a vessel stirred by a Rushton turbine

Baffles provide the considerable advantage of the free surface stability that enhances the turbine's shaft longevity on the other hand it increases the energy consumption due to the flow obstruction that they introduce. So the main issue of the present study is to find a balance between both advantages and disadvantages of baffles. To do so we've investigated numerically the influence of two parameters on the power consumption. First, the baffles radius of curvature varying from Rc*=0 to Rc*=7/30 and secondly the impeller's sense of rotation of. The results were obtained thanks to the ANSYS CFX code; the Navier-Stokes equations were coupled to the standard k_e turbulence model and solved with the Multiple Reference Frames (MRF) method. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.mech.22.3.12663