Optimization of a 3D-printed tubular reactor for free radical polymerization by CFD

Abstract

A flow reactor for the complex reaction network of the free radical solution polymerization of n-butyl acrylate was optimized by a combination of kinetic modeling, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and additive manufacturing. CFD was used to model a flow reactor with SMX mixing elements. An optimized geometry was 3D-printed from polypropylene. The modeled residence time behavior was compared to relevant experiments, giving a validation for the flow behavior of the reactor. A kinetic model for the free radical solution polymerization of n-butyl acrylate (BA) was in addition implemented into the CFD model. It was used to predict the polymerization behavior in the flow reactor and the resulting product properties. The experimental and computational results were in acceptable agreement. Graphical abstract

Combining Functional Prototyping of 3D Printed Reactors with a Modular Reactor Setup for Continuous Emulsion Polymerization

“…The same reaction‐ware can be printed with the same printer from polypropylene if higher chemical and thermal stability is needed. 11…”

“…The same reactionware can be printed with the same printer from polypropylene if higher chemical and thermal stability is needed. [11] Once an optimized reactor geometry/design is found, the CAD drawings can be used to directly manufacture a metal reactor, e.g., also by additive manufacturing. This can give access to reactors more suitable for isothermal behavior.…”

“…Possibly most relevant, 3D printing gives access to reaction-ware geometries, especially mixing elements and structured catalysts, which have not been realizable by conventional molding techniques before or required extensive processing [6,[8][9][10]. Geometries of interest can be 3D printed fast and at low costs after the design by computer-aided design (CAD) program, thus enabling a two-step functional prototyping [4,6,8,11]. Also, 3D printed reactors have beneficial characteristics for industrial production.…”

Coupling Kinetic Modelling with SAOS and LAOS Rheology of Poly(n‐butyl acrylate)

“…These values have already been used in combination with CFD simulations for the development of a flux reactor, which provided good agreements with the experiment. [ 29 ] The kinetic model includes the usual initiation, propagation, transfers and termination by recombination as well as disproportionation reactions. It was demonstrated that correct description of chain length and monomer conversion dependence during bulk radical polymerization is essential to model them successfully.…”

Discovery of Mixing Characteristics for Enhancing Coiled Reactor Performance Through a Bayesian Optimisation-Cfd Approach

“…The use of dimensionless numbers (𝑅𝑒, 𝑅𝑒 𝑜 , 𝑆𝑡, 𝐷𝑒 𝑜 ) has helped in the design and development of high-efficiency reactors [33][34][35][36][37]. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), CFD-led explorations have been extensively carried out for improving the design of reactors, where design improvements can be identified based on visualisations of the flows [38][39][40]. However, these are expensive and are often based on human intuition of the parameter space, which makes this approach ineffective at balancing the number of evaluations needed to identify truly optimal solutions.…”