Abstract:
The aim of the chemical engineering project was to study fluid flow in an air pulse mixing tank by analyzing the transport of the air bubble which occurs in the Process. The mixing tank consists of an acrylic cylinder tank with 6.9 liter working volume, an accumuration plate, connected which a stainless steel tube, used as an air distributor. The volume and pressure of compressed air was controlled by a solenoid valve. The experiment was set into two parts; part I, to study the effect of the size of the accumulation plate as well as the height of that from the bottom of the mixing tank on the velocity of the bubble in both vertical and radial direction during its flow through water. Part II, to study the bubble flow through viscous fluid. The viscosity of the viscous fluid was adjusted by altering the mixing ratio of coconut oil and mineral oil. The result from the experimental part I indicated that the diameter of the accumulation plate did slightly affect the radial velocity and the size of the bubble did not affect its vertical velocity. The maximum radial velocity was observed during the 0.02 second of the experiment, and then it decreased to nil when the air bubble reached the surface of the fluid. Furthermore, the height of the gap of the accumulation plate from the tank bottom strongly affected the maximum radial bubble velocity. The narrower the gap was the higher the velocity was observed. The flow of the bubble through the viscous fluid exhibited the same phenomenon as it flew through water. The maximum radial velocity of the air bubble was inversely proportional to the viscosity of the fluid.