Study of the Efficiency of Heat Transfer in a Stirred Tank with Nonuniform Movement of the Impeller

Mixing is one of the most common processes in various branches of the chemical industry: food, construction, oil refining, pharmaceuticals, and others. Increasing the intensity of mixing can be achieved by changing the speed or direction of movement of the impeller, which is confirmed by studies of domestic and foreign authors. In this paper, a planetary drive of a stirred tank is considered, which makes it possible to implement various types of uneven movement of the impeller. The advantages of the proposed mechanism over existing analogues are compactness, reliability, and ease of setting the coefficient of uneven rotation of the agitator. On the basis of the IKA laboratory reactor, an experimental setup is constructed, with the help of which comparative tests of the heat-transfer intensity in a traditional mixing device with a constant rotational speed and using the proposed planetary mechanism are carried out. As a result of the experiment, it is found that the transmission to the impeller of uneven movement can reduce the mixing time, as well as increase the energy efficiency of the apparatus.