Quantification of laminar mixing in the kenics static mixer: An experimental study

Abstract The laminar flow field in a Kenics KM static mixer has been studied using laser induced fluorescence and digital image analysis. Mixing was quantified by measurement of the number average striation thickness, variance of striation widths and interfacial area, for elements of length to diameter ( L/D ) ratios of 0.8, 1.0, 1.5 with 90° twist per element. From flow visualisations, transitions were observed in the flow where vortices …