(480a) Correlation of Non-Baffled, Angled and Off-Center Agitated Process Vessel Blend Times

Non-baffled vessels are appealing for appropriate light duty mixing applications in the pharmaceutical industry because they may simplify the equipment cleaning challenges associated with baffles.  The use of angled and off-center axial flow mixers in non-baffled dished bottom vessels can provide light duty mixing with good vertical mixing and minimal swirling.  The blend time to achieve 95% homogeneity for a family of geometrically similar tanks from 100L to 5,000L from a manufacturing facility was characterized and fitted to multiple published engineering literature correlations which have been previously developed for baffled tanks.  A comparison of the data fits to the correlations will be presented.