METHOD FOR CONFINED IMPINGING JETS MIXING WITH IMBALANCED MOMENTA

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method for confined impinging jets (CIJ) mixing with imbalanced momenta. The method includes the following steps: connecting each inlet of a CIJ mixer with a to-be-mixed fluid by using an inlet conduit; connecting an outlet of the mixer with an inlet of a suction device by using an outlet conduit; and starting the suction device, enabling the to-be-mixed fluids to enter the mixer sequentially through the conduits and the inlets of the mixer and to mix in a mixer chamber, and the mixture is then sucked out from the outlet of the mixer and flows sequentially through the conduit, the inlet of the suction device, and the outlet of the suction device.

Claims

1. A method for confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta, comprising: connecting each inlet of a mixer with a to-be-mixed fluid by using an inlet conduit; connecting an outlet of the mixer with an inlet of a suction device by using an outlet conduit; and starting the suction device, enabling the to-be-mixed fluids to enter the mixer sequentially through the inlet conduits and the inlets of the mixer and to mix in a chamber of the mixer, and sucking out a mixture from the outlet of the mixer, which then flows sequentially through the outlet conduit, the inlet of the suction device, and the outlet of the suction device.

2. The method for confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta according to claim 1, wherein the mixer has at least two inlets, at least one outlet, and at least one chamber.

3. The method for confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta according to claim 1, wherein the chamber of the mixer is space-closed and at least one chamber has a volume of no more than 100 μL; the shortest distance between any of two nozzles of the chamber of the mixer is not larger than 5.0 mm.

4. The method for confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta according to claim 1, wherein the inlet conduit has a diameter of no less than 0.5 mm; the smallest diameter of the nozzles of the chamber of the mixer is not less than 0.5 mm.

5. The method for confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta according to claim 1, wherein the fluids in the chamber of the mixer is in turbulence, and a Reynolds number at the outlet of the mixer is not less than 1000.

6. The method for confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta according to claim 1, wherein major components of the to-be-mixed fluids are miscible liquids.

7. The method for confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta according to claim 1, wherein the mixture sucked out of the chamber of the mixer can be a solution, a suspension, an emulsion, an aqueous dispersion of bubbles, or any of their combination.

8. The method for confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta according to claim 1, wherein regulating valves are arranged on the inlet conduits.

9. The method for confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta according to claim 1, wherein the suction device consumes the energy of no higher than 1 W for sucking out the fluid from the outlet, and can be either a manually operated or electrically powered.

10. The method for confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta according to claim 1, wherein equivalent lengths of the inlet conduits are not all identical, equivalent inner diameters of the inlet conduits are not all identical, opening of the regulating valves on the inlet conduits are not all identical, or roughness of interior walls of the inlet conduits are not all identical, and any one or combination of the above can be subjected to confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta.

11. The method for confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta according to claim 2, wherein equivalent lengths of the inlet conduits are not all identical, equivalent inner diameters of the inlet conduits are not all identical, opening of the regulating valves on the inlet conduits are not all identical, or roughness of interior walls of the inlet conduits are not all identical, and any one or combination of the above can be subjected to confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta.

12. The method for confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta according to claim 3, wherein equivalent lengths of the inlet conduits are not all identical, equivalent inner diameters of the inlet conduits are not all identical, opening of the regulating valves on the inlet conduits are not all identical, or roughness of interior walls of the inlet conduits are not all identical, and any one or combination of the above can be subjected to confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta.

13. The method for confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta according to claim 4, wherein equivalent lengths of the inlet conduits are not all identical, equivalent inner diameters of the inlet conduits are not all identical, opening of the regulating valves on the inlet conduits are not all identical, or roughness of interior walls of the inlet conduits are not all identical, and any one or combination of the above can be subjected to confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta.

14. The method for confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta according to claim 5, wherein equivalent lengths of the inlet conduits are not all identical, equivalent inner diameters of the inlet conduits are not all identical, opening of the regulating valves on the inlet conduits are not all identical, or roughness of interior walls of the inlet conduits are not all identical, and any one or combination of the above can be subjected to confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta.

15. The method for confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta according to claim 6, wherein equivalent lengths of the inlet conduits are not all identical, equivalent inner diameters of the inlet conduits are not all identical, opening of the regulating valves on the inlet conduits are not all identical, or roughness of interior walls of the inlet conduits are not all identical, and any one or combination of the above can be subjected to confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta.

16. The method for confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta according to claim 7, wherein equivalent lengths of the inlet conduits are not all identical, equivalent inner diameters of the inlet conduits are not all identical, opening of the regulating valves on the inlet conduits are not all identical, or roughness of interior walls of the inlet conduits are not all identical, and any one or combination of the above can be subjected to confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta.

17. The method for confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta according to claim 8, wherein equivalent lengths of the inlet conduits are not all identical, equivalent inner diameters of the inlet conduits are not all identical, opening of the regulating valves on the inlet conduits are not all identical, or roughness of interior walls of the inlet conduits are not all identical, and any one or combination of the above can be subjected to confined impinging jets mixing with imbalanced momenta.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0024] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the working principle of the present invention.

[0025] FIG. 2 is a figure of the dimensions of the CIJ mixer.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0026] As shown in FIG. 1, two inlets of a CIJ mixer 5 are connected with to-be-mixed fluids 3 and 4 by using inlet conduits 1 and 2, respectively; an outlet of the mixer 5 is connected with an inlet of a suction device 7 by using an outlet conduit 6; the suction device 7 is started; and the fluids 3 and 4 enter the mixer 5 through the inlet conduits 1 and 2 respectively, are mixed in a chamber of the mixer 5 to be the mixed fluid 8, are sucked out from the outlet of the mixer 5, flow sequentially through an outlet conduit 6 and an inlet of the suction device 7, and finally flow out of an outlet of the suction device 7. l.sub.1 and l.sub.2 are the lengths of the conduits 1 and 2, respectively, and d.sub.1 and d.sub.2 are the diameters of the inlet conduits 1 and 2, respectively. FIG. 2 shows the dimensions of the CIJ mixer used in the following cases.

[0027] Embodiment 1: The fluids 3 and 4 are both aqueous solutions and IMCIJ mixed. (changing d.sub.1 and d.sub.2, when l.sub.1=l.sub.2=20.0 cm, the interior walls of the inlet conduits 1 and 2 have an identical roughness, and the regulating valves of the inlet are fully open.)

[0028] The aqueous solutions are mixed as described above for 10 seconds, and the volume of the aqueous solution sucked in from each of the conduits 1 and 2 is measured. The volumetric flow rate ratio of the fluids at the two inlets is calculated, and the results are shown in Table 1. The suction device is a manually operated sprayer with an estimated energy consumption of less than 0.1 W in all cases. The results show that the ratio of the two fluids can be regulated by changing the diameter of the inlet conduits, and the imbalanced momenta of the confined impinging jets mixing are realized.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Realization of the regulation of the flow rate ratio of fluids at the inlets by changing d.sub.1 and d.sub.2, when l.sub.1 = l.sub.2 = 20.0 cm, the interior walls of the inlet conduits 1 and 2 have an identical roughness, and the regulating valves of the inlet are fully open Volumetric Diameter Diameter Volume Volume Volume flow rate of of of of of ratio of conduit 1 conduit 2 fluid 3 fluid 4 fluid 8 fluids at d.sub.1 d.sub.2 V.sub.1 V.sub.2 V.sub.0 the inlets No. (mm) (mm) (mL) (mL) (mL) V.sub.1/V.sub.2 1 0.8 0.8 20.0 20.0 40.0 1.0 2 1.6 0.8 20.0 8.0 28.0 2.5 3 3.2 0.8 20.0 6.0 26.0 3.3 4 0.8 0.5 20.0 3.5 23.5 5.7 5 1.6 0.5 20.0 1.5 21.5 13.3 6 3.2 0.5 20.0 1.0 21.0 20.0

[0029] Embodiment 2: The fluids 3 and 4 are both aqueous solutions and IMCIJ mixed (changing l.sub.1 and l.sub.2, when d.sub.1 and d.sub.2=0.8 mm, the interior walls of the inlet conduits 1 and 2 have an identical roughness, and the regulating valves of the inlet are fully open.)

[0030] The aqueous solutions are mixed as described above for 10 seconds, and the volume of the aqueous solution sucked in from each of the conduits 1 and 2 is measured. The volumetric flow rate ratio of the fluids at the two inlets is calculated, and the results are shown in Table 2. The suction device is a manually operated sprayer with an estimated energy consumption of less than 0.1 W in all cases. The results show that the ratio of the two fluids can be regulated by changing the diameter of the inlet conduits, and imbalanced momenta of the confined impinging jets mixing are realized. The results show that the ratio of the two fluids can be regulated by changing the length of the inlet conduits, and the imbalanced momenta of the confined impinging jets mixing are realized.

TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Realization of regulation of flow rate ratio of fluids at the inlets by changing l.sub.1 and l.sub.2 when d.sub.1 = d.sub.2 = 0.8 mm, the inlet conduits have the same interior wall roughness and the regulating valves of the inlet are fully open Volume Volume Volume of of of Volumetric Length Length fluid 3 fluid 4 fluid 8 flow rate of of at the at the at the ratio of conduit 1 conduit 2 inlet inlet outlet fluids at l.sub.1 l.sub.2 V.sub.1 V.sub.2 V.sub.0 the inlets No. (cm) (cm) (mL) (mL) (mL) V.sub.1/V.sub.2 1 20 100 20.0 9.5 24.0 2.1 2 20 80 20.0 10.1 25.0 2.0 3 20 60 20.0 12.1 26.6 1.7 4 20 40 20.0 14.2 30.0 1.4 5 20 30 20.0 16.3 33.3 1.2 6 20 20 20.0 20.0 40.0 1.0

[0031] Embodiment 3: The fluids 3 and 4 are both aqueous solutions and IMCIJ mixed (Regulating the opening of the regulating valves, when l.sub.1=l.sub.2=20.0 cm, d.sub.1=d.sub.2=0.8 mm, and the interior walls of the inlet conduits 1 and 2 have an identical roughness.)

[0032] The regulating valves are arranged on the conduits 1 and 2 and regulated. The aqueous solutions are mixed as described above for 10 seconds, and the volume of the aqueous solution sucked in from each of the conduits 1 and 2 is measured. The volumetric flow rate ratio of the fluids at the two inlets is calculated. The suction device is a manually operated sprayer with an estimated energy consumption of less than 0.1 W. The results show that by regulating the opening of the regulating valve from the fully-opened 1 to the fully-closed 0, the smaller the opening value is, the larger the pressure drop of the inlet conduit is, and the smaller the flow rate is. Therefore, the ratio of the two fluids can be regulated by regulating the opening of the regulating valves on the inlet conduits 1 and 2, and the imbalanced momenta of the confined impinging jets mixing are realized.

[0033] Embodiment 4: Comparison of CoQ.sub.10 suspensions prepared by IMCIJ mixing and CIJ-D mixing

[0034] CoQ.sub.10 nanosuspensions are prepared with a chitosan aqueous solution (pH=4, 0.053 mg/mL) as the fluid 3 and a solution (0.48 mg/mL) of CoQ.sub.10 in ethanol as the fluid 4 by using the IMCIJ mixing method described above, and the conventional CIJ-D mixing with an equal-volume. In the IMCIJ mixing method, l.sub.1 and l.sub.2 are 20.0 cm, the regulating valves on the inlets are fully opened, and the interior walls of the inlet conduits 1 and 2 have an identical roughness. d.sub.1 is set as 1.2 mm, and d.sub.2 is 0.5 mm. The aqueous solutions are mixed for 5 seconds. The volume of the fluid 3 (the chitosan aqueous solution) sucked in is 9 mL, and the volume of the fluid 4 (the ethanol solution) sucked in is 1 mL. The Reynolds number at the outlet is about 3000. 10 mL of the chitosan-stabilized CoQ.sub.10 (0.048 mg/mL) nanosuspension is thus obtained after the mixing. The average particle size is 192 nm, and the polydispersity index is 0.17. In the CIJ-D mixing method, 1 mL of the fluid 3 and 1 mL of the fluid 4 are injected into a CIJ mixer simultaneously, and flow out into 8 mL of the fluid 3. 10 mL of the CoQ.sub.10 (0.048 mg/mL) nanosuspension is thus obtained, wherein the volumetric ratio of the fluid 3 to the fluid 4 is 9:1. The average particle size is 286 nm and the polydispersity index is 0.30. By comparing the CoQ.sub.10 nanosuspensions stabilized with the same concentration of chitosan as well as with the same components but prepared by the two methods, the particle size of the nanosuspension obtained by the IMCIJ mixing method is smaller, and the distribution is narrower than the ones by the CIJ-D mixing method, showing the advantages of the IMCIJ mixing.

TABLE-US-00003 TABLE 3 Average particle size and polydispersity index of CoQ.sub.10 (0.048 mg/mL) nanosuspensions prepared by the two methods Average diameter of Polydispersity index of Mixing mode particles (nm) particle size IMCIJ mixing 192 0.17 CIJ-D mixing 286 0.30