Mixing in a soft‐elastic reactor (SER): A simulation study

Abstract

Inspired by the animal upper digestion tract, a strategy of developing soft-elastic reactors (SERs) for potential industrial usage has evolved, and is under the framework of bio-inspired chemical engineering. In our laboratory, two basic reactor categories have been experimented upon to explore the parameters influencing SER performance: vertical and horizontal cylindrical reactors. Different from the traditional rigid reactors equipped with solid agitators, SERs mainly triggers mixing through the movement of its elastic wall. The mechanisms of SERs are, however, not yet fully understood due to the limitations in the laboratory work in scale and in the diversity of the working conditions. For the first time we present a numerical study on the mixing behaviour of an SER to reveal its special characteristics as an alternative mixing method difficult to show in laboratory. Two-dimensional situations are analyzed numerically with a successful implementation of a moving mesh method in ANSYS Fluent. The approach allows versatile movement of the reactor wall to be effectively simulated. Systematic investigations were then carried out to investigate the effects of two chosen wall motion modes. The effects of such motion modes have been demonstrated through tracking the evolutions of the flow fields. This work shows room for potential improvements of SERs by devising different wall movements.

The role of circular folds in mixing intensification in the small intestine: A numerical study

“…They will hopefully be able help doctors to understand and diagnose related diseases. Moreover, the structural effect of circular folds can inspire the optimized design of soft-elastic reactors that currently have smooth walls, and it is assumed that their mixing performance will be improved for practical applications (Delaplace et al, 2018(Delaplace et al, , 2020Li et al, 2019;Xiao et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2019;Zou et al, 2020). Deshpande et al (2020) designed a miniature air suction system for chemical sensors that could be used to detect toxic chemical gases.…”

“…The insights obtained from the simulation and analysis allow us to understand the digestion process in the human body. At the same time, they offer guidance for the improved design of bio-inspired soft elastic reactors (Liu et al, 2018a,b), whose mixing efficiency must be improved for potential industrial applications (Delaplace et al, 2018(Delaplace et al, , 2020Li et al, 2019;Xiao et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2019;Zou et al, 2020).…”

MHD mixed convection of hybrid nanofluid in a wavy porous cavity employing local thermal non-equilibrium condition

“…Hamid and Shahriari 32 used a wavy-walled open cavity filled with a hybrid nanofluid. In an important study, Li et al 33 reported that the larger amplitude and higher frequency of the moving wall can efficiently mix the viscous fluid. Also, Zou et al 34 summarized that the flow direction should be considered to promote convective mixing.…”

Simulation based investigation of 2D soft-elastic reactors for better mixing performance

“…Although the preliminary numerical analyses of prototype SERs have shown the potential in mixing high viscosity fluid in an efficient way (Li et al, 2019;Zou et al, 2020), SERs can be improved still further (Delaplace et al, 2018(Delaplace et al, , 2020. The SER in experiments has one fixed shape, and the wall motion is restricted to a one-sided simple movement.…”