Programs
Show me an engineer that doesn't like to do what-if and I'll
show you ...
What better way to end your consulting service with Post Mixing than
to have a computer program tailor-made to your project? Together with
the Mixer/Reactor Inventory, this program estimates mixing times,
gas dispersion quality, degree of solids suspension, mass transfer
characteristics and more.
These
programs are tailor-made to your process. Most likely the program will be
in Excel utilizing VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) or Quattro Pro utilizing
PerfectScript or VBA to automate calculations
and usability. Together with the Mixer/Reactor
Inventory, you can quickly make comparisons from one reactor to another, or
use it to aide in scale-up, scale-down, or plant transfer. You can also use
this to look at just one reactor and optimize its performance.
Because the program comes in spreadsheet format, it allows you to
do what-ifs long after Post Mixing has left your company.
The program comes with many tried and true correlations from the
mixing literature to get you into the ballpark. Use it as is, to get
a feeling of the importance of mixing. Modify the inputs, to tailor
the program to your processes and see how your processes are affected
by mixing. The program allows you to modify essentially every
correlation to make this generic program specific to just
your processes. Then use the program to optimize your process. The
program can also include solver buttons to streamline those what-ifs
you do most frequently.
Documentation is in the program by way of comments and online help.
Key Benefits
- Parameters are organized in sections
- Reactor Selector
- Input buttons
- Tank/Reactor characteristics
- Impeller factors
- Mixing factors
- Mass transfer parameters
- Operational inputs and outputs
- Process calculations
- Impeller details for up to 6 impellers (standard)
- Automated solver buttons
- Automated scale-down assistance selector
- A separate sheet holds all of the important impeller parameters
- On-line glossary with hyperlinks for quickly finding what you need
- Preinstalled graphs
- One-button generation of a scaled reactor drawing. This handy
little drawing is to scale. It can quickly alert you to something
that might be obviously wrong. The problem may be real, or it may just
be that the input was wrong. Red colored items warn you of possible
problems, such as missing data, or that the red item is outside the
range of typical situations. It also gives you a visual idea of how
high the fluid is relative to the upper impeller.
- Convenient drop-down Input Windows (click on pictures for a better
view). After pushing an input button, the input window appears. Because
of the enormous amount of information required to properly analyze
a mixing problem, the inputs are grouped and organized like tabs
in a filing cabinet.
-
Operational Inputs: Fluid weight, volume, density, Newtonian
or non-Newtonian viscosity, gas hold-up model selector, and more
are inputs here. The buttons and check marks allow you to select
your inputs. The rest will be calculated for you.
- Impeller Inputs: Specifies parameters for each individual
impeller on the shaft based on the uniqueness of its position. These
are not Np, Nq, etc, which are found on the Impeller Sheet.
- Mixing Inputs: Specifies parameters dealing with the mixing,
such as degree of mixing, inlet pipe positions, IEF-factors, etc.
-
Mass Transfer Inputs: Specifies the parameters needed to solve
mass transfer calculations. Currently there is only a module
for gas-liquid mass transfer. If you use different equations than
those shown here, they can be easily swapped out. Other modules
for solid-liquid mass transfer, liquid-liquid mass transfer, and
heat transfer can be easily set-up.
- Program Defaults: Want to find out quickly which reactor in
your plant/company will do the best for a particular process? Set the
defaults of your process and apply them to all of your reactors.
In an instant you can tell which reactor is going to give you the
best results by looking at the preinstalled graph comparisons.
- Tank Inputs: A place to lock and unlock access to your
inventory. You don't want anyone to make changes here, unless it is
to update the dimensions of the reactor. That can be necessary after
someone noticed an error in the data, or after a retrofit or reactor
modification took place.
-
Tank Calibration: A nice and handy place for the
experimental data that determines your no-load power draw.
The data here is used to compare your measured power during
a reaction and the calculated impeller power from the program.
- Case Study: This is your case study maintenance center. So
you have spent all this time doing "what-ifs". This window allows you
to save your data without overwriting the original. By doing so, it
also updates the Reactor Selector, so that you can come back to this
case study as often as you wish.
|
