(301c) Blending Performance of Hydrofoil Impellers with Tiplets

Grenville et al. (AIChE Annual Meeting, Phoenix AZ, 2022) presented data on the flow efficiency and trialing vortex properties of hydrofoil impellers with and without fins (tiplets) at the tips of their blades. The power drawn by the impellers was measured using an air-bearing and level arm torque meter while the mean flow and trailing vortex velocity and length scales were measured with a stereo particle image velocimeter.

Also, large eddy simulation CFD models of the three impellers were developed to compare the measured values of the Power number, Flow number and vortex properties and these also made predictions of the blend times. The conclusions drawn were that there was no appreciable difference in the performance of the three impellers tested on any basis.

Blend times have been measured for the three hydrofoils and the results presented here will provide another opportunity to compare their performance and to compare the new experimental results with the previously reported CFD values.