TE-7 Review of Intube Static Mixers for Heat Transfer Applications
Inline static mixers promote the radial spreading of momentum and heat and are thus useful in enhancing heat transfer, especially in viscous laminar flows. After a brief review of the physics of plain tube laminar flow heat transfer, this report includes classifications of these mixers based on their construction and presents some coarse correlations of heat transfer and pressure drop for concept studies using the f- and j-factor input fields in Xist®. Accurate correlations necessary for final design still rest with the vendors. Several CFD simulations of inline static mixers used at HTRI’s Research & Technology Center offer insight on their behavior. Finally, the report discusses two applications, including one using the input f- and j-factor fields in Xist.