The scale-up of the industrial mixer is always based on operation experience

and lacks theoretical basis. In this paper

effects of scale-up criteria on the mixing time and flow characteristic in the intermittent pump-mixer with single-phase has been studied. Three-dimensional time-dependent mixing prediction has been carried out using multi reference frames (MRF) method and standard k-ε model embodied by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package FLUENT6.3. The results indicated that the calculated mixing time was depended on detecting location

but the dependency became weaker by increasing the impeller speed. The power number was obtained at different Reynolds number

and it tended to be a constant as 1.3 under the condition of sufficient turbulence. Geometric similarity ensured the axial flow characteristics in the mixer. The criterion of equal impeller tip speed and equal Reynolds number demanded a longer mixing time and obtained a lower suction pressure head than the benchmark mixer. The criterion of equal circulation time and geometrical similarity could obtain the same mixing time as the benchmark and high suction pressure head

but the power consumption per unit volume sharply increased to 24 times as the benchmark. The criterion of equal power consumption per unit volume and geometrical similarity could obtain a better balance of all the parameters considered

and was considered to be the best one compared with other three criteria.