Study of the blade installation angle of a forced-action mixer with a vertical shaft in the “mixer — concrete pump” system
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34185/1562-9945-4-165-2026-19Keywords:
forced-action mixer, vertical shaft, blade installation angle, concrete mixture, polystyrene concrete, concrete pump, computer modeling, velocity distribution, mixture homogeneity, blade, mixingAbstract
The article considers the influence of the blade installation angle of a forced-action mixer with a vertical shaft on the process of concrete mixture mixing in the “mixer — concrete pump” technological system. A computer model of the mixer was developed in the SOLIDWORKS software package, which made it possible to study the movement of the mixture in the working chamber, evaluate the distribution of particle velocities, and identify zones of insufficient or excessive mixing. A D400 polystyrene concrete mixture with a compressive strength class of B1.0 was adopted as the studied medium, and the blade movement speed during the simulation was 0.66 m/s. The operation of a conventional 100 mm wide blade at installation angles of 20° and 10° was considered, as well as several variants of a modernized vertical blade, including a “boot-shaped” design, a blade with a triangular cutout, and a blade with additional openings. It was established that, at a 20° installation angle of the conventional blade, the maximum velocity of mixture particles reaches 1.65 m/s, which may cause excessive mixing intensity in individual zones, whereas reducing the angle to 10° decreases the maximum velocity to 0.7 m/s and provides more uniform material movement. It is shown that the modernized vertical blade with openings at an installation angle of 10° provides a balanced mixing mode with a maximum velocity of about 0.84 m/s and uniform circulation of the mixture within the chamber volume. The obtained results can be used to substantiate the rational blade installation angle, improve the design of forced-action mixers with a vertical shaft, increase the homogeneity of the concrete mixture, and ensure its stable supply by a concrete pump.
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