Turbulent flow in stirred tanks. Part I: Turbulent flow in the turbine impeller region

The concept of the trailing vortex introduced by van't Riet and Smith (1975) is used for evaluation of the mean velocity and intensity of periodic velocity fluctuations in the turbine impeller discharge flow. From the analysis of forces acting on the trailing vortex, it follows that geometric similarity in the impeller discharge flow can be expected for the Reynolds number range Re ε 〈1.5 × 10⁴; 9.0 × 10⁴〉 and for the radial distance up to one‐tenth of the impeller diameter. The calculated profiles of mean velocity and intensity of periodic velocity fluctuations agree with published data and permit the declaration of boundary conditions for the impeller discharge flow for numerical modeling of turbulent fluid flow in turbine impeller agitated tanks.