Storage/treatment tank mixing system

• US 7,025,492 B2
• Filed: 05/28/2004
• Issued: 04/11/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Vaughan Company Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Vaughan Company Incorporated
• Inventors: Dorsch, Glenn R., Behnke, Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): SORKIN, DAVID L
• Application Number:
  US10/858,859
• Publication Number:
  US 20050162972A1
• Time in Patent Office: 683 Days
• Field of Search: 366/173.1, 366/173.2, 366/165.1, 366/165.5
• US Class Current: 366/165.1
• CPC Class Codes: B01F 2101/305 Treatment of water, waste water or sewage
• CPC Class Codes: B01F 23/40 Mixing liquids with liquids; Emulsifying
• CPC Class Codes: B01F 23/50 Mixing liquids with solids displacing one liquid by another in dispersions of solids in liquids B01D12/00
• CPC Class Codes: B01F 25/21 with submerged injectors, e.g. nozzles, for injecting high-pressure jets into a large volume or into mixing chambers
• CPC Class Codes: B01F 25/212 the injectors being movable, e.g. rotating
• CPC Class Codes: B01F 25/2125 Moving to adjust the direction of jetting, the injectors being fixed during operation

Abstract

Submerged jet nozzles are located at equal distances from the center of a tank containing a quantity of liquid and solids. Some of the nozzles induce flow partly inward and some induce flow partly outward, but all mixers are directed generally in the same circumferential direction. The inward directed nozzles are located close to the bottom of the tank and direct liquid across the central portion of the tank where solids tend to accumulate. Upper nozzles direct flow at least partly outward but in the same circumferential direction as the lower nozzles. The flow from the upper nozzles tends to reflect off the wall of the tank in addition to inducing a rotational flow of substantially the entire body of liquid in the tank.

Claims

1. In a tank having a floor, a center, and a peripheral wall, the tank containing a quantity of nonhomogeneous material including a liquid having a median depth in the tank, and apparatus for mixing the nonhomogeneous material, the improvement comprising the mixing apparatus including a plurality of first jet nozzles for inducing flow of liquid within the tank, the first nozzles being located a substantial distance outward from the center of the tank and a substantial distance inward from the peripheral wall of the tank, the first nozzles being equidistant from the center of the tank, and a plurality of second jet nozzles for inducing flow of liquid within the tank, the second nozzles being located a substantial distance outward from the center of the tank and a substantial distance inward from the peripheral wall of the tank, the second nozzles being equidistant from the center of the tank, each of the first nozzles inducing flow of liquid in a first direction circumferentially of the tank, each of the second nozzles inducing flow of the liquid in the first direction circumferentially of the tank, the first nozzles being directed at least partly inward relative to a tangent to a circle centered about the center of the tank which circle intersects the locations of the first nozzles and the first nozzles being directed inward relative to the second nozzles, each first nozzle being approximately aligned vertically in the tank with one of the second nozzles, each first nozzle being adjacent to the floor, and each second nozzle being raised above the floor at an elevation higher than the first nozzles.

2. In the tank defined in claim 1, each first nozzle being angled inward at an angle between 45 degrees and 60 degrees, and each second nozzle being angled outward at an angle between 10 degrees and 30 degrees.

3. In the tank defined in claim 1, each of the first and second nozzles being positioned closer to the center of the tank than to the peripheral wall of the tank.

4. In the tank defined in claim 1, the first and second nozzles inducing approximately equal flows.

5. In the tank defined in claim 1, each of the first and second nozzles being located below the median depth of liquid.

6. The method of mixing material in a tank having a floor, a center, and a peripheral wall, the tank containing a quantity of liquid having a median depth, which method comprises:

using a first jet nozzle to induce a first flow of liquid in the tank at a location adjacent to the tank floor, a substantial distance outward from the center and a substantial distance inward from the peripheral wall, in a first direction circumferentially of the tank; and

using a second jet nozzle aligned vertically with but higher than the first nozzle to induce a second flow of liquid in the tank at a location substantially higher than the first flow, the second flow being in the first direction circumferentially of the tank, the first flow being directed at least partly inward relative to a tangent to a circle centered about the center of the tank which circle intersects the first jet nozzle, and the first flow being directed inward relative to the second flow.