Investigation on flow characteristic and reaction process inside an EVA autoclave reactor using CFD modeling combined with polymerization kinetics
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Yiduo Wang; Cheng Liu; Sheng Wang; He Dong
- Source
- Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, 39(6), 267, pp.1384-1395 Jun, 2022
- Subject
- 화학공학
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 1975-7220
0256-1115
EVA is an important high-performance resin material obtained by the copolymerization of ethylene andvinyl acetate. In the present study, a comprehensive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was established tostudy the EVA free radical copolymerization process. The polymerization kinetic model was combined with the CFDmodel. The EVA copolymerization reaction mechanism was verified by comparing the simulation results with theexperimental results. Detailed information of the flow field inside the industrial EVA autoclave reactor was obtained. With the increase of the impeller speed, both the axial and radial flows inside the autoclave reactor were enhanced. Thehigh impeller speed improved the fluid mixing and the homogeneity of temperature distribution. The increase of theimpeller speed improved the initiator dispersion near the inlets, thereby increasing the efficiency of the initiator. Theinfluence of operating conditions on monomer conversion and specific initiator consumption per 1% of the monomerreacted was investigated. The simulation results give deep insight into the free radical copolymerization process insidethe autoclave reactor and supply the guidelines for developing an industrial autoclave reactor.