Numerical Simulation of Heat and Mass Transfer in a Continuous Flow Micro-Static Mixer at Different Configurations

Abstract

In modern organic chemistry, continuous flow chemistry has been proposed as a means to intensify processes, improve efficiency and control. Laminar flow in the reactor limits micro-mixing to promote reactions and transport phenomena. A thorough understanding of the phenomena is required to understand how the distribution and dispersion of components, heat exchange and pressure drop change based on the geometric configuration. In this work, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to perform a systematic theoretical investigation of the effect of a different design on the performance of passive micro-static mixing.

The finite volume method was used to solve the governing equations. Concentration profiles, temperature, stagnant zones, velocity profiles, and pressure fields are obtained for different designs. The results show that the small square wave static micro-reactor gave the most favorable results.