The fluid dynamic and mass transfer characteristics of concentric upward
gas-liquid flow were studied in the industrial static mixer with four
equally spaced helical inserts (FKSM). The numerical simulations of gas
volume fraction in Kenics mixer had a good agreement with the numerical and
experimental results provided by Rabha et al. The characteristics of radial
gas void fraction and local mass transfer coefficients in the FKSM were
evaluated under different operating conditions. The velocity profiles of
concentric air phase accelerated by the bubble forces firstly became sharp
and narrow until z/l=-3.27 and then slowly decreased and stabilized at
z/l=-1.5 before entering the first mixing element. Some extra unimodal
profile of radial gas holdup gradually generated near the rectangle cross
sections of mixing elements. The ?G gradually enlarged from r/R=0.2 to
r/R=0.55 and then weakened from r/R=0.65 to r/R=0.874. The air void
fractions in the bulk flow region decreased with the increasing initial
uniform bubble diameter. The inlet effect of first leading edge enhanced the
air phase dispersion and local mass transfer coefficients sharply increased
from 2.04 to 3.69 times of that in the inlet. The local mass transfer
coefficients in each mixing group had unimodal profiles.