Phenomena

Mixing While Laminar

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Although turbulent flows are known for their mixing efficiency, in manufacturing there can often be a need to mix laminar fluid streams without the increased shear stress of a turbulent flow. This can be particularly important for polymeric liquids, where too much shear stress could damage the polymer chains. One possibility is using a static mixer, such as the one demonstrated in this video, which, when placed in pipe flow, will deflect the pipe’s contents in such a way as to produce efficient mixing over a short distance. Here two streams of high-viscosity epoxy are mixed through such a static mixer, hardened, and then ground to show the mixing at each level of the static mixer. (Video credit: Sulzer)

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