ARS | Publication request: COMPUTER SIMULATION OF JET AGITATION EFFECTS ON AGROCHEMICAL MIXING IN SPRAY TANKS

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: May 26, 1999
Publication Date: N/A

Technical Abstract: A computational fluid dynamics code (FLUENT) was used to investigate flow movements in sprayer tanks with hydraulic jet agitators. Two- dimensional simulations were conducted to properly simplify the simulation geometry and size. Three-dimensional simulations were conducted using single phase (liquid phase only) and multiphase (solid particles in liquid) models. Selected simulation domain was a portion of whole sprayer tank which was modeled considering symmetry and periodicity of the predominant flow field. The design of these simulations was a parallel to experimental studies of agitation effectiveness to determine the most important factors affecting the agitation effectiveness by Ucar et al. (1999). Single-phase solutions to computer model agreed well with overall experimental results that the system pressure was the most important factor affecting agitation effectiveness through its direct influence on jet velocity. If the jet velocity was kept constant, then the volume of fluid delivered into the tank was the most important factor in enhanced mixture uniformity. Initial objective of this CFD study was to predict particle deposit amounts at the tank bottom. However, solving three dimensional, turbulent, multiphase flows (granular model) in order to reach this aim was not feasible using available personal computers because computation times would be several months.