CFD simulation of flow field and power characteristics in a vibromixer

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were performed to investigate hydrodynamics in a vibromixer. The velocity and pressure fields, and power consumption in the mixer were obtained, and compared with experimental data in the literature. The maximum relative error of predicted Newton number (Nev) to experimental data is only 5.07%. Furthermore, the effects of vibration frequency, amplitude and vibrating disc diameter on flow field and power consumption were researched. It is found that fluid velocity rises linearly in the mixer with increasing of vibration frequency, amplitude and vibrating disc diameter, while the uniformity of velocity distribution is improved slightly, worsen and improved greatly, respectively. The relationships between averaged power consumption and its corresponding vibration frequency and amplitude are P¯\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\overline{P}$$\end{document} ∝ f3 and P¯\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\overline{P}$$\end{document} ∝ A3, respectively. The ratio of maximum instantaneous power consumption to averaged power consumption (Pmax/P¯\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\overline{P}$$\end{document}) is almost a constant with value about 2.28. Newton number is hardly affected by frequency and amplitude, while increases with the enlargement of vibrating disc diameter. Newton number Nev increases by about 2.2 times when disc diameter rises from 0.204 to 0.238 m.