Micromixing effects in a couette flow reactor

This work quantitatively measures the micromixing efficiency in a Couette f low reactor on the basis of a unique parallel competing reaction scheme pro posed by Villermaux and co-workers. According to those results, hydrodynami c instability markedly affects the segregation index. In laminar Couette fl ow (LCF) regime, increasing the rotational speed only slightly increases th e micromixing efficiency. On the other hand, initiating the Taylor vortex m otion significantly enhances the micromixing efficiency. In addition, the m ixing times are estimated on the basis of an incorporation model. In LCF re gime, the estimated micromixing time is unreasonably high. At the subsequen tly hydrodynamic transitions, t(m) substantially decreases and ultimately r eaches a low level of 10(-3)-10(-4) s in the turbulent vortex flow regime. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.