Chemical reactors are said to be the heart of a chemical plant. The chemical reactor is where high value products are produced through chemical transformation. Reaction engineers are concerned with the reactor yield, selectivity, safety, environment, product quality and purity, and plant economic viability of many different types of reactors, products and operational conditions. ANSYS engineering simulation software provides reliable tools to complement conventional reaction engineering practices. By bringing comprehensive multiphysics capabilities to reaction engineering, ANSYS has created an engineering simulation platform that encompasses, fluid mechanics, structural mechanics, impact and safety analysis, mixing, pressure vessel code, heat and mass transfer and gaseous and liquid reaction involving single and multiphase, including homogenous and heterogeneous reactions. Advances in CFD and computational speed, as well as the ability to model complex reactions such as detailed fluid mechanics, has made virtual prototyping a norm in many engineering circles. This is especially true in scale-up studies and for applications where approximations of well-mixed CSTR and plug flow assumptions do not hold. In addition, ANSYS simulation tools provide engineers the answer to "what if" questions to allow them to optimize reactor performance by better understanding processes such as the feed location, the effect of vessel geometry and its internals, vibrations, failure analysis, "dead spots", shear rate, resident time distribution, hot spots and particle size distribution. A sample list of processes and ANSYS features used in reactor design include:
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CFD results showing draft tube depth on sludge bed entrainment in a bio-reactor
Impinging jet reactor
Gas-sparging in a mixing tank |
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