Computer simulation helps improve design of mixers for photographic reagents Available to Purchase

Polaroid has improved the design of reactor mixing tanks by using computer simulation to evaluate the shearing, orientation and the circulation of the fluid under alternate mixer designs. The turbulent mixers used in the past do not work well with the new high‐viscosity photographic reagents because large shear rates necessary for efficient structure breakdown exist only within those limited regions of the tank in close proximity to the blade/impellers. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation was used to evaluate a variety of different mixing designs with an eye towards modifying existing tanks to overcome these problems. The result was the development of a retrofit design to the existing tank that provides far superior mixing of the new reagents.