A quick convertible agitating system
Experiments of agitator properties are required a lot in process industry. A more efficient, practical and lower cost experimental system is demanded. In this research, a new type of quick convertible agitating system was designed which had a unique structure combined turning bracket with available impeller to enhance the prosperities and efficiency of the agitator experiment. Consisted of one driven system and two agitating tanks, the mechanism driven by a servo motor was designed in Pro/Engineer, and was controlled by a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) and its configuration software. The control system had upper part and lower part. The former one was controlled by a PC, the latter one was controlled by the PLC, and the communication between them was built. The striking features of the device were that a turning bracket was applied to change one tank from the other, and four blade shapes of the impellers (which were double-oblique 75-degree impeller, anchor impeller, two-layer of double-oblique 75-degree impeller, large-double-blade impeller) were designed to supply for selecting any blade shape of the impeller to be fixed in the agitating experiments. Parameters were measured and controlled in real-time including speed of the motor, temperature of the medium and torque of the motor during the agitating by control system. Many experiments were done by using this system. When studying the factors such as speed, medium and shape of blade that effect the agitating under the water, From the experiments data, the mixing time number of large-double-blade impeller was minimum and the mixing efficiency number was also minimum, which indicated the large-double-blade impeller was the best for agitating. The fluent software was also used to simulate the flown line nears the impeller. The simulation results coincided well with the experiment results. Not only the experiments results but also the simulation all showed the feasibility and practicability of the agitating system. More research could be continued to make it commercialized.