Turbulence in not fully filled vessel

In many chemical and biotechnological processes, mixing represents one of the fundamental unit operations, object of interest in chemical, pharmaceutical and food industries. Mixing efficiency is strongly influenced by the design and operating conditions chosen. The flow field study is important to understand which mechanism takes place in the fluid inside the stirred tank, in particular to characterize the property of the fluid and, to do that, a widely investigation techniques are used. This experimental work was carried out during the “Erasmus + for traineeship” project carried out at the Chemical Engineering department of the University of Birmingham. It aims to investigate some parameters that influence the fluid dynamics of an agitated system, understanding how they influence it and possibly finding new parameters to define the turbulence of a system. To achieve this aim, the characteristic parameters of a traditional single-phase system mechanically stirred and their behaviour during mixing have been experimentally studied. To understand the flow field generated in the various operating configurations adopted, an optical diagnostic technique, 2-D PIV, was used. The work ends with the final considerations developed after analyzing the system both by changing the physical and geometric parameters and how these can affect the turbulence of an agitated system.