Applied Process Engineering Laboratory
The FACE group shares experimental space in the APEL facility with other tenants. FACE staff perform experimental and computational determinations of the mixing that will occur in certain waste feed process tanks at Hanford for the Office of River Protection Waste Treatment Plant Project. These tanks will contain waste slurries that must be well mixed to prevent settling of solids and to keep the waste homogeneous so it can be sampled accurately. The mixing is accomplished without moving parts using a pulsed jet system, whereby liquid is expelled suddenly and repeatedly into the bottom of the tank by pressurizing a pulse tube and then allowing it to refill before the next pressurization. The result is turbulent flow throughout the tank and high shear forces along the bottom that suspend any settled solids. Hydrodynamic tests are conducted at two length scales and flow patterns are simulated to compare them to better understand the hydrodynamics behavior. Experiments and simulations are performed with the concentrated slowly settling solids subjected to the flow patterns. From this staff can confirm that a specific tank and mixer design will provide the needed homogeneity in solids concentration in such tanks.
Point of Contact: Perry Meyer