CFD simulation of a mixing-sensitive reaction in unbaffled vessels

Stirred tanks are widely used in the process industry, often to carry out complex chemical reactions. In many ofsuch cases the perfect mixing hypothesis is not applicable for modelling purposes, and more detailed modellingapproaches are required in order to accurately describe the reactor behaviour. In this work a fully predictivemodelling approach, based on Computational Fluid Dynamics, is developed. Model predictions are comparedwith original experimental data obtained in un unbaffled stirred vessel with a parallel-competitive, mixingsensitive reaction scheme. Notably, satisfactory results are obtained at all injection rates with no recourse tomicro-mixing model, thus confirming the major role played by macro-mixing in the investigated system.