Abstract:

Traditional reactors are usually made of rigid materials, which container walls do not actively participate in mixing and reaction with fluid. Inspired by working mechanism of human and animal digestive systems, a new soft-elastic reactor (SER) was developed to promote mixing through wall movement. The SER, made of silicone rubber with good transparency, toughness and elasticity, had periodic wall movement driven by an easy to operate, stable, and highly reproducible crank-rod system. Systematic experimental study on mixing Newtonian fluids under different operational conditions demonstrated that fluid mixing could be realized in SER and mixing performance could be effectively controlled by frequency and degree of wall deformation. Furthermore, a new Reynolds number calculation was proposed to describe SER mixing. Compared to inclined three paddle agitator at same dimension and experimental condition, the soft-elastic reactor had slightly better mixing performance in low Reynolds number region (10-1000).

Key words: bionics, mixing, soft, reactors, laminar flow

摘要：

传统的反应器通常由刚性材料制成，容器壁面不会主动地参与其内部流体的混合和反应。在人和动物的消化系统工作机制的启发下，开发一种新型的柔性反应器（SER）。反应容器由透明度良好、有一定韧性和弹性的有机硅橡胶制作而成，并且在一套容易操作、稳定、可重复性强的曲柄连杆机构驱动下实现往复形变。系统分析研究了牛顿流体在柔性反应器中不同实验条件下的混合过程和混合时间。实验结果显示，柔性反应器能够实现流体的混合且混合效果可以由形变频率和形变程度进行有效控制。利用新的Reynolds数公式，还初步比较了相同尺度和实验条件下的柔性反应器和传统三叶斜桨式搅拌器的混合效果，在低Reynolds数区域（10～1000）柔性反应器略优于三叶斜桨式搅拌器。

关键词: 仿生, 混合, 柔性, 反应器, 层流