主讲人：Rajarathinam Parthasarathy
报告时间：2024年11月29日15点30分
报告地点：办公楼201会议室
主讲人简介
Rajarathinam (Raj) Parthasarathy is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. He served as the Deputy Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering from 2014 to 2016 and is currently the Deputy Director of the Centre for Advanced Materials and Industrial Chemistry. Raj earned his PhD from the University of Newcastle in Australia under the supervision of Laureate Professor Graeme Jameson. Prior to his academic career, Raj worked as a production engineer at the Oil & Natural Gas Corporation in India for four years, followed by two years as a lecturer at the University of Malaya. He has held various positions at RMIT University, including Associate Professor and Director of the Rheology and Materials Processing Centre. His research focuses on multiphase flow in agitated reactors, anaerobic digesters, slurry pipelines, and process intensification to develop practical solutions through experimental and computational methods. He has collaborated with the water industry and has researched biodegradable polymer nanocomposites and sustainable biomass waste management. Raj has published over 200 articles, including 110 peer-reviewed journal papers. He has supervised 41 graduate students and is currently overseeing five PhD candidates. Additionally, he has taught various chemical engineering courses and is a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) in the UK.
报告主要内容：
Scaling occurs when material deposits from liquids onto surfaces, leading to the formation of scale that can grow to significant thickness. This growth can obstruct openings and bridge physical components. The issue of scaling has long plagued industries such as mineral processing, oil refining, and chemical manufacturing, resulting in increased costs, reduced efficiency, and safety risks for operators during maintenance. While the chemistry and crystallization of scaling have been studied extensively, effective practical solutions are still needed. Developing these solutions requires quantitative studies on scale growth, but this presents challenges due to the difficulty of measuring scale thickness on the walls of tanks or pipes. Our research aims to discover an optimal fluid flow pattern within reactors to minimise scale growth. We conducted experiments using a dismantlable cylindrical reactor to grow scale on the vessel wall. We captured the two-dimensional scale thickness distribution (STD) through coordinate measuring machine (CMM) scans of the vessel wall. We investigated the effects of different impeller types, baffle arrangements, and concentrations of suspended solids on STD. Additionally, we utilised computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to explain the variations in scale amounts based on near-wall liquid velocity. This seminar will present our experimental findings and recommend an optimal design for agitated reactors to reduce scaling.
