COMPONENTS OF SLURRY PLANTS

Typical Power Number for Mixers in Turbulent Flows

Type 3 Blades 4 Blades
45° flat-pitched blades 1.6 1.7
Propeller (marine) 0.7 0.8
Hydrofoil 0.2 0.5

Vol = Vol (7-31)

where is the specific gravity of the slurry mixture.
The terminal velocity for spheres was discussed in Section 3-1-3-1. A design settling
velocity is correlated to by a correction factor :
= (7-32)
where
= design settling velocity
= the terminal (or free settling) speed
The correction factor is presented in Table 7-8 as a function of weight concentra-
tion. This empirical coefficient was developed by Chemineer Inc., based on experimental
work. It is often difficult to predict the nature of the flow or the drag coefficient near an
impeller blade. At weight concentrations in excess of 15%, the solids start to interact, hin-
dering settling so that the settling velocity must be adjusted.
The level of agitation is very important to the mechanics of suspension. Chemineer
Inc. developed a scale of agitation from 1 to 10, summarized by Gates and al. (1976) as in
Table 7-9. Figure 7-40 shows the level of suspension of solids in correlation with the
Chemineer scale. Often, manufactures define mixing as simple, mild, medium, vigorous,
or violent (Figure 7-40).
The science of mixing and keeping solids in suspension is highly empirical. The engi-
neer should take into account existing similar installations as well as lab work results.
Because of wear associated with slurries, a simple flat blade system is used to design

Flow Coefficient
D/H = 0.40
D/H = 0.45
C = Q 3 D/H = 0.50
Q ND
Ratio of Impeller
diameter to tank height
Turbulent
Laminar Transition

2
Reynolds Number Re = ND /(2 )
Flow coefficient versus Reynolds number.