NUMERICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF THE EFFECT OF FILL FACTOR IN AN INTERNAL MIXER FOR TIRE MANUFACTURING PROCESS
Mixing is a complex process in manufacturing where all the component ingredients are brought together by moving rotors in a closed chamber. Understanding mixing is very important in terms of evaluating the efficiency of the mixer and effect of various operating parameters such as rotor speed, ram pressure, temperature, fill factor, etc. With the physical mixing process always being partially filled, it is very important to determine the effect of fill factor and the best operating fill ratio that yields the highest throughput. Mixing also controls the physical, chemical and mechanical properties required for downstream processing. Researches on the complex mixing process are not only limited to increase the productivity of the system but also to improve the quality of product and repeatability of the operation. Availability of modern high performance computing resources and accurate mathematical models makes computational fluid dynamics (CFD) an important and necessary tool in understanding some of the complex physical and chemical phenomena associated with such industrial manufacturing problems. This research presents the calculation of various flow properties to determine the dispersive and distributive mixing in an internal mixer. Flow characteristics are calculated in terms of the velocity field and pressure distribution inside the chamber. Similarly, massless particles have been in