Continuous
milli-scale reactors with internal mixing elements are
increasingly used in the chemical industry and considered for polymerization
processes. Their small scale makes them especially susceptible to
fouling. Addressing this problem, this article presents a computational
fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of a Miprowa millireactor channel. The
flow field is examined with the finite-element based software package
COMSOL Multiphysics to identify areas of low velocity, generally prone
to fouling during polymerization reactions. For simplicity, the flow
is assumed incompressible and isothermal, using the material properties
of water. Three geometry modifications to the mixing elements are
proposed. Numerical simulations of the flow field around the proposed
mixing elements show a reduction in areas with stagnating flow by
20%, reducing the fouling potential without substantially affecting
other metrics such as the pressure loss.
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