Development of the horizontal swirl mixer with a fillet shape

•A new shaped continuous mixer with simple mixing structure is proposed, aiming to gain high mixing performance.•Mixing is performed by the secondary flow caused by the centrifugal force and the swirling flow.•Mixing performance and internal flow is discussed. In this study, a new shaped continuous mixer with simple mixing structure is proposed, aiming to suppress the short pass phenomenon to gain high mixing performance. Therefore, fluid motion of secondary flow by centrifugal force and swirling flow is focused. Furthermore, validity was examined by numerical analysis. Flow visualization was performed, and the mixing performance was verified using the electric conductivity method and transmission luminance measurement. As a result, a horizontal disc mixing tank with a fillet shape as the shape of the mixer was proposed. In the radial direction, it is predicted that forced vortex occurs near the center and Quasi-free vortices occurs at the opposite edge. Moreover, at opposite edge in the vertical direction, a pair of upper and lower vortices was observed. It was confirmed that a secondary flow was generated at the opposite edge. Concentration dispersion rapidly progresses in the vicinity of the side opposite edge of the mixing tank. It is confirmed that dispersion in the vicinity of the outlet part is small and uniformly mixed in the mixing tank regardless of the angle. It is regard as the consequence of the shear effect caused by the swirl flow generated near the outlet portion and the cross-sectional mixing due to the secondary flow generated at the opposite edge. It was found that it has mixing performance of about N = 9–14, comparing to the complete mixing tank train model.