Yes / Positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) was used to visualise the flow patterns
established by mixing in two laboratory-scale anaerobic digesters fitted with mechanical
mixing or gas mixing apparatus. PEPT allows the visualisation of flow patterns within a
digester without necessitating the use of a transparent synthetic sludge. In the case of the
mechanically-mixed digester, the mixing characteristics of opaque sewage sludge was
compared to a transparent synthetic sludge at different mixing speeds. In the gas-mixed
apparatus, two synthetic sludges were compared. In all scenarios, quasi-toroidal flow paths
were established. However, mixing was less successful in more viscous liquids unless mixing
power was increased to compensate for the increase in viscosity. The robustness of the
PEPT derived velocities was found to be significantly affected by the frequency with which
the particle enters a given volume of the vessel, with the accuracy of the calculated velocity
decreasing in regions with low data capture. Nevertheless, PEPT was found to offer a means
of accurate validation of computational fluid dynamics models which in turn can help to
optimise flow patterns for biogas production. / The first author was funded via an EPSRC CASE award in conjunction with Severn Trent Water. The second author was funded via a University of Birmingham Postgraduate Teaching Assistantship award.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/16966 |
| Date | 24 February 2017 |
| Creators | Sindall, R.C., Dapelo, Davide, Leadbeater, T., Bridgeman, John |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article, Accepted manuscript |
| Rights | © 2017 Elsevier. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. |
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