Mixing Laboratory

The Mixing Laboratory is dedicated to the study of single- and multi-phase mixing phenomena, such as those occurring in industrial stirred tanks and reactors, involving single fluids – primarily liquids with different rheological properties – in the presence or absence of one or more additional phases, such as fine solid particles, a dispersed gas or an immiscible liquid. Mixing phenomena are extremely common in industry, taking place in very small systems, such as tablet dissolution in testing units used in the pharmaceutical industry, and in large production units, such as drug solid suspensions in a carrier liquid for pharmaceutical product manufacturing. The outcome in each case is significantly affected by the hydrodynamics established by a moving component, typically an impeller. Understanding the fluid dynamic characteristics of these systems is critical. For this purpose, the lab is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, such as particle image velocimetry, to non-intrusively measure the fluid velocities anywhere in the system. Additionally, numerical tools, including computational fluid dynamics and theoretical process modeling, such as mass transfer models, are used to determine how mixing affects processes of real industrial interest – often in collaboration with industrial partners – and how it can be modified to improve outcomes