Distribution of solid particles in stirred suspensions

In this work, an in-house technique for the measurement of local particle concentration in solid-liquid suspensions based on an fibre-optical probe is presented. The technique is preliminary evaluated on the basis of the detailed flow field information gathered by means of RANS based CFD simulations, which allow to identify the best operating mode for minimizing the experimental uncertainties. Afterwards, the experimental and computed radial and axial solid concentration profiles in a pilot stirred reactor are compared and a very good agreement is found. This study allows to point out that, once proper computational strategies are selected, the usefulness of CFD simulations is twofold: they can be adopted for obtaining reliable predictions of various parameters in solid-liquid systems and used for gaining a better understanding of the complex fluid flow features of turbulent multiphase flows.