Finite Element Modeling of Viscous Mixing: A Review

The objective of this paper is to review the application of the finite element-based CFD methods in mixing engineering. It provides a good opportunity to summarize the thirty five years of finite element achievements in the field of fluid flow started in the 70's, with the development of the first 2D Navier-Stokes solver for Newtonian and non-Newtonian viscous fluids, and extended in the 80's, with new solution algorithms to tackle 3D problems. For mixing simulations, a corner stone was the introduction of the "virtual finite element method" in the mid 90's for the simulation of flow systems with internal moving parts. In the on-going quest to improve the characterization of mixing systems for industrial needs, further developments are required, and progress could come from the next generation of computationally efficient multi-physics solvers.