Investigation of Turbulent Mixing in a Macro-Scale Multi-Inlet Vortex Nanoprecipitation Reactor by Stereoscopic-PIV

Flash Nanoprecipitation (FNP) is a technique to produce monodisperse functional nanoparticles through rapidly mixing a saturated solution and a non-solvent. Multi-inlet vortex reactors (MIVR) have been effectively applied to FNP due to their ability to provide both rapid mixing and the flexibility of inlet flow conditions. Until recently, only micro-scale MIVRs have been demonstrated to be effective in FNP. A scaled-up MIVR could potentially generate large quantities of functional nanoparticles, giving FNP wider applicability in the industry. In the present research, turbulent mixing inside a scaled-up, macro-scale MIVR was measured by stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (SPIV). Reynolds number of this reactor is defined based on the bulk inlet velocity, ranging from 3290 to 8225. It is the first time that the three-dimensional velocity field of a MIVR was experimentally measured. The influence of Reynolds number on mean velocity becomes more linear as Reynolds number increases. An analytical vortex model was proposed to well describe the mean velocity profile. The turbulent characteristics such as turbulent kinematic energy and Reynolds stress are also presented. The wandering motion of vortex center was found to have a significant contribution to the turbulent kinetic energy of flow near the center area.