TRANSPORT PHENOMENA AND FLUID MECHANICS

Heat Transfer Performance of NETmix—A Novel Micro-Meso

Structured Mixer and Reactor
Marcelo F. Costa, Carlos M. Fonte, Madalena M. Dias, and Jose C. B. Lopes
Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Engineering–Laboratory of Catalysis and Materials (LSRE-LCM),
Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias,
4200-465 Porto, Portugal

DOI 10.1002/aic.15728
Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com)

NETmix is a novel static mixing technology consisting on a network of unit cells, comprising chambers interconnected by
channels. To assess the heat transfer capacity of NETmix, the NUB model was implemented to perform hydrodynamics and
heat transfer simulations. Due to the periodic nature of the NETmix structure, two central chambers and six half-chambers
were found to be sufficient to be representative of the whole network. The Nusselt numbers were determined based on the
CFD simulations, and when compared with theoretical results for laminar flow between parallel plates, 3–5 times higher
Nusselt number values were obtained with NETmix. This observed heat transfer rate enhancement, makes it suitable for fast
reactions where heat transfer is crucial. Finally, results obtained from this study show that NETmix presents a heat transfer
capacity one order of magnitude greater than microreactors, and 2–5 orders of magnitude greater than the most commonly
C 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 00: 000–000, 2017
used devices in industry. V
Keywords: NETmix, microstructured devices, mixing, heat transfer, CFD

Introduction temperatures. This is particularly critical for highly exother-

Static mixers have been used in industrial applications to
perform continuous operations and have become standard
equipment since the 1970s, as an alternative to mechanical
mixers, for mixing of miscible or immiscible fluids, homoge-
nization of solid particles, and for heat and mass transfer
enhancement.1,2 This type of mixers is applied in a wide range
of different industrial processes in the pharmaceutical, petro-
chemical, food, cosmetics, biotechnology, water/wastewater,
paper, and polymer industries.2,3 The effectiveness of static
mixers to deliver good mixing of miscible fluids or to enhance
heat and mass transfer rates comes from their capacity to
induce transverse mixing and to bring fluid elements into close
proximity.2 One of the most interesting characteristics of these
mixers is that the products are mixed by flow energy alone,
thus they do not require external power except the required
power for pumping the fluids through the mixer; furthermore,
static mixers usually require small space, low equipment cost,
and no moving parts.2 However, the use of static mixers usu-
ally originates an increase of the overall system pressure drop
as well as greater potential for fouling, relative difficulty for
cleaning and greater cost.2
In many chemical processes/reactions, it is a main requisite
an effective and precise control of the operational fluid
This contribution was identified by Suzanne Kresta (University of Alberta) as
the Best Presentation in the session “Novel Mixer and Mixed Reactor Design” of
the 2012 AIChE Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to J. C. B. Lopes at
lopes@fe.up.pt.
C 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers
V channels (Figure 1). The network is built from the repetition
mic or endothermic reactions, where the heat transfer rates
become crucial. Most heat exchange devices are designed so
as to operate in the turbulent regime, as it is commonly consid-
ered that laminar regime is not efficient from a heat transfer
point of view.4 Some authors have proposed chaotic advection
as a means to enhance heat transfer in laminar flows, as it hap-
pens in static mixers.5,6 Cross-section heat transfer enhance-
ment is due to the appearance of secondary transverse flows,
improving transverse mixing coupled to flow division, pro-
moted by the geometry of the static mixer.7 This results in the
virtual elimination of boundary layers that form the dominant
resistance to heat transfer in pipe flow.
Heat transfer enhancement caused by the use of static
mixers is not a new topic, and several authors have already
described the benefits of the use of different type of static
mixers, by reporting the dimensionless heat transfer coeffi-
cient, the Nusselt number, in the form of correlations useful
for the design of heat exchange equipment.8,9 Some authors
have shown that the heat transfer coefficients can be enhanced
2–3 times in Kenics static mixers operating in laminar regime,
while for Sulzer SMX static mixers, the heat transfer rate can
be enhanced by a factor of five when compared with that in an
empty tube.10 A first compilation on correlations for the Nus-
selt number obtained experimentally in tubes containing com-
mercially available static mixers is given in Thakur et al.2
Heat exchangers that include static mixing elements have
become commercially available and are currently used in the
industry.
The NETmix is a novel mixing technology11 that consists
on a network of mixing chambers interconnected by transport

AIChE Journal 2017 Vol. 00, No. 00 1

 Figure 1. (a) Front and side-view drawing of a NETmix network; (b) Lab-scale NETmix.
of NETmix unit cells organized into consecutive pairs of nx
rows, with ny and ny 21 number of cells, and the NETmix
device is open to flow through equal number, ny , of inlets and
outlets. Each unit cell consists of one chamber and two chan-
nels (two inlet and two outlet half channels) oriented at a 458
angle from the main flow direction and consists of cylindrical
chambers and rectangular channels. In the NETmix, proper
mixing can be achieved only above a critical channel’s Reyn-
olds number, where the flow inside the chambers evolves from
a fully developed laminar flow to a self-sustained dynamic and
chaotic oscillatory laminar flow regime inducing strong lami-
nar mixing. This phenomenon is well documented and
described in previous works12,13 and is attributed to the local
hydrodynamic instabilities induced by the geometric charac-
teristics and by the impinging jets interactions within the
chambers.
Mixing in the NETmix has been evaluated (both experimen-
tally and using CFD modeling)12,14 showing that mixing can
be effectively and efficiently controlled. In terms of its energy
performance, the power number and the Z factor of NETmix
were determined based on experimental measurements of the
pressure drop, as well as CFD simulations, and proved to be
competitive with existing mixers,15 delivering considerably
larger mixing power than stirred tanks using impellers. The
NETmix technology has also already been industrially estab-
lished when applied as a chemical reactor for the continuous
production of nanoparticles of hydroxyapatite, a calcium phos-
phate that is predominantly found in teeth and bones within
the human body, with controlled particle size and morphology,
high surface areas, purity and nano-crystallinity.16,17
NETmix can also be used as a heat exchange device, or as a
reactor in processes where highly exothermic/endothermic
reactions occur and large amounts of heat have to be supplied/
removed to/from the system. As in other static mixers where
chaotic advection is promoted, heat transfer enhancement in
2 DOI 10.1002/aic Published on behalf of the AIChE
NETmix is expected, however, it was never evaluated. The
main objective of this work is to assess the NETmix’s heat
transfer capacity, in terms of the flow regime impact in the
heat transfer resistances at the fluid level, by determination of
Nusselt numbers, and comparison between NETmix and other
technologies used for heat transfer.
Three-Dimentional CFD Modeling
The 3-D nature of the flow inside the chambers and chan-
nels of the NETmix network makes problematic any geometri-
cal simplification for the modeling strategy. Furthermore, the
nonstationarity of the flow regime for certain ranges of the
domain of interest for the operation of this device, obliges the
characterization of the heat transfer properties in terms of spa-
tial and time averaging, as discussed and introduced later on.
Laranjeira et al.12 observed that significant hydrodynamic
changes occur when a critical channel’s Reynolds number
(defined as Re5qt channel dh =l, where q is the fluid density, l is
the fluid viscosity and t channel is the mean velocity in the chan-
nels) of 150 (verified experimentally by Laranjeira et al.12) is
achieved. At this Reynolds number, the flow evolves from a
fully developed laminar regime to a dynamic oscillatory flow
regime, where mixing is enhanced due to chaotic advection.
Therefore, the influence of the hydrodynamics of NETmix is
of great importance to determine NETmix’s heat transfer per-
formance. Fonte, et al.15 also observed this phenomenon using
a hydrodynamic 3-D CFD model, that was used for the deter-
mination of the NETmix’s pressure drop, as well as for the
determination of parameters (that are a function of the geome-
try of the NETmix) to be used in a mechanistic model for pres-
sure drop prediction.
The NUB model (NETmix Unit Block) developed by Fonte
et al.15 emerged from normal computational limitations, as it
is impractical to simulate the whole control volume of the
2017 Vol. 00, No. 00 AIChE Journal
Figure 2. NETmix Unit Block (NUB) CFD model and unit cell. A unit cell drawing is shown in the top-left corner,
with the relevant dimensions represented. Unit cell dimensions of NUB model are: D 5 6.5 mm,
d 5 1 mm, x 5 3 mm, and L 5 8.5 mm.
NETmix device. However, as both the geometry and the
expected flow patterns have a periodically repetitive nature,12
it is conceivable to simplify the simulation of the larger system
by modelling only a small representative part of its flow
domain. The NUB model (Figure 2) comprises five rows and
three columns, where only two complete central chambers and
six lateral half-chambers are represented. Transversal symme-
try surfaces (see Figure 2), normal to the xy plane, delimit the
half-chambers by crossing the complete lateral chambers in
the centre. A translational periodic boundary condition is
applied to the resulting symmetry surfaces. The NUB transport
model was validated15 using reported experimental data,
enabling the computation of transport properties without the
need for experimental data.
As the original NUB model is already validated regarding
its hydrodynamics, simulating particularly well the chaotic
behavior observed above the critical Reynolds number, an
adapted NUB model is applied in this work for the study of
heat transfer in NETmix. To compare with laminar flow
between parallel plates, it is assumed that heat transfer to the
flowing fluid results mainly from conduction through the top
and bottom solid wall surfaces (identified as “heat transfer
surface” in Figure 2), neglecting the heat conduction through
the curved surfaces of the chambers and the lateral side surfa-
ces of the channels, of minor area, and driven by lesser ther-
mal gradients between adjacent chambers and channels. In
spite of the fact that heat transfer by conduction through the
NETmix walls in the flow direction can play a relevant trans-
fer mechanism in certain circumstances, such as for large tem-
perature differences between hot and cold fluid, as in the
instances for highly exo/endothermic reacting processes, the
heat transfer by conduction along the solid will not be taken
into account in this modeling strategy.
Governing equations and boundary conditions
The flow field simulation is achieved by integration of 3-D
forms of the continuity and motion equations while the tem-
perature field is obtained by solving the energy equation. The
AIChE Journal 2017 Vol. 00, No. 00 Published on behalf of the AIChE
continuity equation (conservation of mass) and the equation of
motion (conservation of momentum) assume the form
@q
1rðq~
t Þ50 (1)
@t
@ ðq~
tÞ
t  rðq~
1~ t Þ52rp2r  s 1q~
g 52rp2r
@t  
T
 2l r~ t1ðr~ tÞ 1q~
g (2)
where ~t is the velocity field, t is the time, p is the fluid pres-
sure, q and l are the local values of the fluid’s density and vis-
cosity, respectively. The energy conservation equation,
neglecting viscous dissipation, is given by
@ ðqcP T Þ
1r  ðqcP~
tT Þ5r  ðjrT Þ (3)
@t
where T is the temperature, cP is the local fluid heat capacity
and j is the local fluid thermal conductivity. Viscous dissipa-
tion is neglected due to NETmix’s high energy efficiency
demonstrated previously.15 From the observations made by
Fonte et al.,15 in the operational simulation range of this study,
an energy dissipation of less than 1 mW is expected, in the
chaotic regime.
These equations are solved for the following boundary condi-
tions: no-slip condition is assumed in the walls of the domain,
t wall 50; simplified uniform velocity profile is applied to the
~
network inlet channels; parallel flow condition is applied at the
network’s outlet channels by imposing a simplified constant
and uniform pressure profile, pout 5p0 ; periodic boundary condi-
tions are imposed at the symmetry surfaces of the half-
chambers of the NUB model; either constant-wall temperature,
Twall 5T0 or constant-wall heat flux, q_ wall 5q_ 0 , is imposed at
both top and bottom surfaces. These two last boundary condi-
tions are the two limiting cases consistent with the condition of
no conduction at the wall, as previously discussed.
The flow is incompressible and the working fluid is water
with variable local physical properties with temperature. The
physical properties of water were fitted (valid in the range of
DOI 10.1002/aic 3
 Table 1. Temperature Dependence of Water Physical
Properties.18 Valid for a Range of Temperatures from 273 K
to 373 K
Property Expression
Density q52250111:5T23:4531022 T 2 13:2831025 T 3
ðkg=m3 Þ 21 23 26 2
l51:57310 21:65310 T16:60310 T 2
Viscosity
ðPa  sÞ
28 3
21:18310 T 17:95310 212 4
T lation technology suite, was used for the geometrical design of
cP 51:533104 2116T14:5131021 T 2 2
Specific Heat
Capacity 27:8431024 T 3 15:2031027 T 4
ðJ=kg KÞ
j524:3231021 15:7331023 T28:0831026 T 2 1
Thermal
Conductivity 11:8631029 T 3
ðw=m KÞ
273–373 K) as a function of the temperature to polynomial
expressions from published experimental data18 (Table 1).
Numerical simulation strategy
As the hydrodynamics of NETmix is crucial for the determi-
nation of the Nusselt numbers in the NUB model, it is neces-
sary to adopt a strategy that takes into consideration the
presence or not of the oscillatory behavior inside the chambers
if the critical Reynolds number is exceeded.
When the Reynolds number is below the critical Reynolds
number (channel’s Reynolds number at which the flow
evolves from a fully developed regime to a chaotic regime),
that is, Re < 150, no oscillation patterns are observed and
therefore only a steady-state simulation is performed, applying
the boundary conditions described before.
When Reynolds number reaches a value large enough so that
oscillations are observed, a two-step simulation procedure is
required. First, to obtain an initial and symmetric solution,
steady-state simulations are performed where symmetry condi-
tions are applied by imposing shear-free surface condition to
both the symmetry surfaces of the half-chambers of the NUB
model and to the surfaces that divide the two complete central
chambers in the middle. Then, once a symmetric solution is
obtained, the shear-free surfaces at the complete chambers in
the NUB model are removed, while the shear-free surface con-
dition from the half-chambers is switched to periodic boundary
conditions. With these conditions, a transient simulation is per-
formed for a total flow time large enough for the flow inside the
NUB to fully develop the oscillatory patterns. A total flow time
of 15suc (unit cell residence time) is considered, being the Nus-
selt number computed in each simulation time step, determined
using Dt5Dx=tmax;channel where Dx is the minimum dimension
of a fluid element in the channel, where the highest velocities
occur, and tmax;channel 53=2t channel .
Furthermore, a uniform temperature of 293 K is imposed at
the network inlet channels. For the constant wall temperature
simulations, a constant temperature of 373 K is imposed to
both the top and bottom surfaces. For simulations with con-
stant wall heat flux boundary condition, a constant average
heat flux is imposed. The wall heat flux is estimated by impos-
ing a maximum value to the temperature difference, DTin=out ,
between the NUB inlet and outlet, and is given by
2wchannel cP DTin=out
q_ wall 
Atransf;tot
where q_ wall is the wall heat flux, wchannel is the channel’s mass
flowrate, and Atransf;tot is the total heat exchange area of the
4 DOI 10.1002/aic Published on behalf of the AIChE
NUB. A thermal gradient of DTin=out 560 K was chosen in
order to ensure that all local temperatures were within the
validity range of the water’s physical properties relationships
(Table 1).
Numerical discretization and solution methods
R
The computational tool ANSYSV 13, an engineering simu-
the NUB model (using Design Modeler) and for the simulation
grid generation (using Meshing). A grid dependency test was
performed by sequentially increasing the grid refinement in
different directions. In each grid, both the heat flow rate and
the average temperature at the middle of the channels were
monitored and compared with the correspondent values
obtained with the previous grid refinement. This process
stopped when the relative variation of these values between
meshes with consecutive refinement levels was lower than
1%. This analysis was performed for different Reynolds num-
bers. From this test, it was observed that the grid discretization
in the flow direction used in previous works15 was not suffi-
ciently refined to accurately simulate the temperature distribu-
tion inside the NUB domain. In this work, a grid with
hexahedral finite volumes with maximum volume edge length
of Dx50:05 mm in the flow direction is used. Successively
refined discretizations in the z direction was also performed in
the grid dependency test. It was observed that applying a size
growth algorithm in this direction, so that the size of the ele-
ments grew from 0.05 mm near the walls (where the tempera-
ture gradients are larger) to 0.1 mm in the centre position of
the NUB model, resulted in an enough refined grid. The num-
ber of elements in this mesh is lower than the number of ele-
ments for a grid with constant sized elements with volume
edge length of 0.05 mm, thus reducing the computational
effort and the simulation time. The final computational grid
presented 2.5 million volume elements.
The flow equations solutions were obtained using the finite-
volume commercial CFD software ANSYS FluentTM 13.0. For
steady-state simulations (to obtain symmetric flow solutions),
the SIMPLEC scheme was used for the pressure–velocity cou-
pling, the Standard and third-order MUSCL schemes were
used for pressure and momentum discretization, respectively,
and third-order MUSCL scheme was used for the discretiza-
tion of the convective term of the energy conservation equa-
tion. For transient simulations, a second-order implicit scheme
was used for time discretization. The simulation was consid-
ered to have converged when no significant variation of the
outlet temperature and velocity values, averaged by the mass
flowrate, was lower than 1% relatively to the previous itera-
tion, and when the normalized residues of the governing equa-
tions were lower than 1026 for steady state simulations, or
1024 for transient simulations, in each time step.
Heat transfer simulation in NUB model were run on an
R R
IntelV XeonV 3GHz 8-core machine with 24 gigabytes of
installed RAM memory resulting in simulation times of
approximately 30 min and 60 h for the steady and transient
simulations, respectively.
NETmix heat transfer performance
To evaluate the NETmix heat transfer performance, two
(4) distinct sets of simulations with different wall boundary condi-
tions were performed: constant-wall temperature and constant-
wall heat flux. Both sets of simulations were performed at
different Reynolds numbers, varying from 5 to 600 at the
2017 Vol. 00, No. 00 AIChE Journal
Figure 3. Temperature contour maps at the middle plane of the domain for Rein 5 100 and Rein 5 300 for: (a) con-
stant wall temperature simulations; (b) constant wall heat flux simulations.
[Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

NUB inlet channels, to completely observe the transition in interactions at the chambers, thus, promoting the reduction of het-
the hydrodynamic regime as described before, while maintain- erogeneities in the temperature field of the mixer (Figure 4).
ing a dynamic laminar regime. A proper way to assess the heat transfer operational capacity of
CFD simulations have shown that with the increase of the Reyn- NETmix in the dynamic flow regime can be obtained by determin-
olds number, the characteristics of the flow patterns inside the unit ing the time-average unit cell Nusselt number Nuuc , defined by
cells changes. Above the critical Reynolds number, chaotic quasi- tð
int
periodic flow oscillations start to occur inside the chambers, lead-
ing to a more uniform fluid temperature distribution. This is Nuuc ðtÞdt tð
int  
illustrated in Figure 3 that shows the temperature contour maps at 0 dh h ðtÞ h
Nuuc 5hNuit 5 tð
5 dt5dh (5)
the middle plane of the NUB geometry for two different values of int tint  ðtÞ
j j
 t
0
the Reynolds number evaluated at the inlet channels conditions dt
(density and viscosity evaluated at the inlet temperature), Rein : 0
Rein 5100, where no oscillations are observed; and Rein 5300,
above the critical Reynolds number, where the flow inside the mix- where h is the instantaneous unit cell heat transfer coefficient
ing chambers presents an oscillatory behavior that induces strong (evaluated at each instant), j
 is the thermal conductivity eval-
local laminar mixing. This uniformization on the temperature dis- uated at the unit cell average temperature, tint is the total
tribution pattern was observed for both sets of boundary conditions, dynamic simulation integration time, and the operator hit rep-
for constant-wall temperature and constant-wall heat flux. Perma- resents the time average of the ratio of the two physical param-
nent local hot spots are observed when no local laminar mixing eters. Defining Nuuc as the time-average unit cell Nusselt
occurs in the mixing chamber, leading to a highly heterogeneous number is helpful since it can be applied for both hydrody-
temperature field. Although hot spots are still observed for namic patterns above and below critical Reynolds number.
Rein 5300, their position changes randomly with time, due to the When the flow inside the chambers is chaotic, no steady-state
local hydrodynamic instabilities induced by the immerging jets solution is found, therefore, a time-dependent solution is

Figure 4. Temperature contour maps at the middle plane of the domain of the chamber in the fourth row for Rein 5 300
and constant wall heat flux simulation, for different flow times.
[Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

AIChE Journal 2017 Vol. 00, No. 00 Published on behalf of the AIChE DOI 10.1002/aic 5
required. That problem is solved if the Nusselt number is an 1 x
x 5 ; (12)
average of the values at each instant, as both the heat transfer RePr x
coefficient and the thermal conductivity (due to temperature
where Pr5cP l=j is the fluid Prandtl number, x is the distance
changes) are varying with time. The values of Nuuc from Eq. 5
from the NUB inlet measured along the channels axis, x is the
were obtained using a shortcut, by computing the time-
clearance between the top and bottom plates and the Reynolds
average of h and j
 separately, that is
Number Re evaluated at the local conditions. The variable x ,
hhit huc the inverse of the Graetz number, is normally used in studies
Nuuc  dh 5 dh (6)
h
j it juc of entry length effects on laminar flow heat transfer prob-
lems.20 For any unit cell, a convective heat transfer coefficient,
where huc is the time-average unit cell convective heat transfer huc , can be computed by averaging between the dimensionless
coefficient and juc is the time-average unit cell thermal con- thermal entrance points, xin (at the centre of the inlet channel)
ductivity. Finally, to determine Nuuc , it is necessary to inde- and xout (at the centre of the outlet channel) as
pendently determine huc and juc , calculated performing the ð xout
average of the instantaneous values of the heat transfer coeffi- hloc ðx Þdx
cient and thermal conductivity: xin
huc 5 (13)
xout 2xin
tð
int
1 Q_ uc ðtÞ where hloc is the local heat transfer coefficient of the unit cell.
huc 5 dt (7)
Atransf;uc tint DTuc ðtÞ For predominant laminar parallel flow, the local heat transfer
0
coefficient depends on the geometry and configuration of the
tð
int flow, and is a function of x , expressed as19
1
juc 5  ðtÞdt
j (8)
tint hloc / ðx Þ21=3 (14)
0
Substituting Eq. 14 in Eq. 13 and integrating the latter, is pos-
where Q_ uc is the instantaneous p heat flow rate through the unit
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi sible to calculate an average convective heat transfer coeffi-
cell, Atransf;uc 5pD2 =412dðL2 D2 2d 2 Þ is the active heat cient as
exchange area of the unit cell, D is the chamber’s diameter, L  2=3   2=3
is the distance from the centre of two adjacent chambers, and 3 0 xout 2 xin
huc 5 C (15)
DTuc is a characteristic temperature difference. The total trans- 2 xout 2xin

ferred heat flux Q_ uc is determined by the energy balance to the
unit cell, and given by the sum of the enthalpy flow rates at where C0 is the configuration flow constant. For the different
the two inlets and two outlets cells of the NUB, the dimensionless thermal entrance points
Xð Xð can be calculated from
Q_ uc 5 TqcP ð~t ~
n ÞdA1 TqcP ð~
t ~
n ÞdA (9) 8  
>
>  nx 21 
< xin 5 nx 21=2 xuc
>
in Ai out Ai

where i stands for each of the two inlet channels, j stands for   (16)
>
> nx
each of the outlet channels, ~ n represents the normal unitary > 
: xout 5 x 

vector pointing outwards the control surface that delimits the nx 21=2 uc
boundaries of the domain, and A represents the respective being xuc is computed from Eq. 12, at the centre of the unit
cross-sectional flow area. cell’s chamber. The cell center distance xuc is determined by
The characteristic temperature difference is determined  
using an appropriate logarithmic mean temperature 1 L
xuc 5 nx 2 pffiffiffi (17)
difference19 2 2
   
Tb;out 2Twall;out 2 Tb;in 2Twall;in where L represents the linear distance between the in and out
DTuc 5    
(10)
ln Tb;out 2Twall;out = Tb;in 2Twall;in surfaces of each cell, a single constant value in the regular
NUB. In this way, it is now possible to estimate the existing
where Twall;in and Twall;out are the wall temperatures, at the inlet ratio at any cell of the NUB, between the average and local
and outlet of the unit cell, respectively and Tb;in and Tb;out are convective heat transfer coefficient as
the bulk temperatures, estimated from the average temperature
weighted by the mass flow rate of the fluid in the channel.  2=3  2=3
nx x 21
2 nnx 21=2
huc 3 nx 21=2
ðð 5   (18)
hloc x 5xuc 2 1
qð~
t ~
n ÞTdA nx 21=2
A
Tb;i or j 5 ð ð i or j : (11)
qð~
t ~
n ÞdA This ratio tends quickly to one when nx grows along the NUB.
Ai or j Using Eq. 18 and the NUB dimensions in Figure 2, relatively
small differences are obtained between the local and averaged
The unit cell Nusselt numbers for the NUB model, calculated heat transfer coefficient (e.g., 0.86% and 0.15% for unit cells
from Eq. 6, are surface averaged values rather than local val- of row two and four, respectively). Therefore, the Nusselt
ues. To determine the importance of the entry length effect numbers can be considered as effectively constant after a few
along the cells in the NUB, a dimensionless thermal entrance cells, and thus all the reported heat transfer coefficients were
distance variable x is introduced as20 determined at the fourth cell of the NUB.

6 DOI 10.1002/aic Published on behalf of the AIChE 2017 Vol. 00, No. 00 AIChE Journal
 the lateral regions of the chambers, and in the loss of the sym-
metry within the z direction. This represents the start of the
appearance of instabilities in the chambers, although there is
no significant influence of these instabilities on the overall
hydrodynamics. Nonetheless, this transition results in an
increase of the Nusselt number, as observed from Figure 5. At
this point, the flow is no longer fully parallel. The vortices
intensity, area and asymmetry increase with the increase of the
Reynolds number, resulting in deformation phenomenon, such
as stretching and folding, and in an increase of fluid volume

Figure 5. Nusselt number as a function of the inlet

channel Reynolds number for the unit cell of
the fourth row of the NUB model for two
cases: constant wall temperature and con-
stant wall heat flux.

The computed Nusselt number values, for the two sets of

boundary conditions (constant wall temperature and constant
wall heat flux), are reported in Figure 5 as a function of the
Reynolds number evaluated at the inlet channel’s conditions,
Rein . As can be observed, the Nusselt number value remains
constant for low Reynolds numbers ð<20Þ. The Nusselt num-
bers converge to an asymptotic lower constant value, where
the thermal boundary layer is completely developed, resulting
in a constant heat transfer coefficient along the mixer, regard-
less of the Reynolds number value. For larger Reynolds num-
bers ð>20Þ, a gradual increase of the Nusselt number is
observed, with the largest increase between Rein 550 and
Rein 5150. Flow dynamics change at Rein 550, with a strong
impact in the increase of the Nusselt number. For Rein  150
the oscillatory flow patterns are completely developed, which
induces strong chaotic mixing that increases the heat transfer
coefficient of the NETmix with increasing Reynolds number,
in a similar manner as in the cases of turbulent pipe flows.
The analysis of Figure 5 is more interestingly made if differ-
ent flow regimes are associated to different Reynolds numbers.
In fact, the increase of Nusselt number with the Reynolds num-
ber is explained by the flow regime transitions that occur inside
the NETmix chambers. The contour maps of the sign (positive
or negative, i.e., the direction of the flow) of the z component of
the vorticity xz , determined by x5r3~ t, in the middle plane
of the unit cell at the fourth row for simulations with constant
wall temperature boundary-conditions, for different Reynolds
numbers evaluated at the inlet of the NUB model, is shown in
Figure 6. It is possible to distinguish different operational vor-
ticity regimes from the vorticity map analysis.
For low Reynolds number ðRein  10Þ, the flow is mostly
segregated and steady parallel flow is observed. For Rein 55, Figure 6. z component vorticity contour maps evalu-
the jets present opposite sign vorticity due to the symmetry of ated at the middle plane of the unit cell at
the expansion that occur at the chamber. Small recirculation the fourth row as a function of the Reynolds
zones are only observed in the lower region of the chamber. number evaluated at the inlet for simulations
For Rein 510, the same behavior is observed. However, the with constant temperature boundary-
increase of inertial forces translates the point of velocity curl- condition. Color scale represents the sign of
ing above the centre of the chamber. This turnover point the component: white—positive, counter-
moves towards the wall of the chamber as Reynolds number clockwise; blue/dark—negative, clockwise.
increases. Contour map for Rein 5 150 was obtained at
At Rein 520, a flow regime transition occurs, resulting in a time step of 15suc.
the appearance of strong dynamic vortices near the walls in [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

AIChE Journal 2017 Vol. 00, No. 00 Published on behalf of the AIChE DOI 10.1002/aic 7
interfacial area,21 thus enhancing heat transfer, by bringing
fluid elements with larger temperature gradients closer. A sec-
ond flow regime transition is observed at Rein  50, where
vortices start to appear in the upper region of the chamber,
near the walls. From Figure 5, it is possible to observe that for
Rein  50, the slope of the curve increases when compared to
the region 20 < Rein < 50, indicating that the appearance of
these secondary vortices enhance mixing and heat transfer
even further. When the Reynolds number reaches the critical
value, Rein  150, the system evolves from a steady flow to a
self-sustained chaotic dynamic laminar flow regime, character-
ized by its dynamic asymmetric flow patterns. This behavior
induces strong dynamic oscillations, resulting in the formation
of vortices. The presence of these dynamic vortices that have
the capacity to interact with each other deforms the fluid ele-
ments even further,22 resulting in an increase of heat transfer
rate through the walls. Observed chaotic oscillation frequency
increases with the increase of the Reynolds number.15
These hydrodynamic regime transitions were observed in
simulations for both sets of boundary conditions.
Heat transfer equipment benchmarking
To ascertain the impact of the results from Figure 5, a com-
parison of the obtained results from the NUB model with a
similar heat transfer device is necessary. Since the flow in the
NETmix for low Reynolds numbers, is parallel and segre-
gated, a comparison with heat transfer with laminar flow
between parallel plates is the most suitable for this purpose.
Also, NETmix and parallel plates have geometrical similari-
ties, as heat transfer is performed through both bottom and top
walls, when neglecting conduction through lateral walls as this
transfer area is relatively unimportant. Additionally, the case
for laminar flow between parallel plates presents analytical
solutions for asymptotic regimes, derived for Newtonian fluids
with constant physical properties and fully developed laminar
velocity profiles,19 making it directly comparable.
For laminar flow between parallel plates, two asymptotic
values are considered: a first region where the thermal
boundary-layer is being developed; and a second region where
the thermal boundary layer achieves its maximum thickness of
xPP =2, the half plate gap size, where the maximum heat trans-
fer resistance is attained. The use of the dimensionless thermal
entrance length (or its inverse, the Graetz number) is useful to
determine in which regime the system is: for low thermal
entrance lengths, a developing thermal boundary layer is pre-
sent; while for high thermal entrance lengths, the boundary
layer is fully developed.
The local Nusselt number is defined as NuPP 52hPP xPP =j
for parallel plates, where hPP is the parallel plates local con-
vective heat transfer coefficient. For constant wall heat flux in
the flow region where the thermal boundary layer is still in
development, the local Nusselt number is function of the
dimensionless thermal entrance length and is given by19
2Cð2=3Þ   21=3
NuPP 5 xPP (19)
31=3
where C is the gamma function and xPP is the dimensionless
thermal entrance length, calculated through Eq. 12, using
the parallel plates local Reynolds number, defined as
RePP 52xPP qt =l. For the thermally fully developed region,19
the Nusselt number for constant wall heat flux is NuPP 58:24.
8 DOI 10.1002/aic Published on behalf of the AIChE
For constant wall temperature, for the flow region where the
thermal boundary layer is still developing, the local parallel
plate Nusselt is given by19
2   21=3
NuPP 5 1=3 xPP (20)
3 Cð4=3Þ
and for the thermally fully developed flow, the Nusselt number
is found to be NuPP 57:54. Eqs. 19 and 20 were obtained by
analytically solving the energy equation, assuming that the
laminar parabolic velocity profile is fully developed and
constant fluid properties. But as the used properties for the
comparison are the local properties, the comparison can be
done.
Prior to a direct comparison between Nusselt numbers for
NUB and parallel plates, it is necessary to take into account
the differences in geometry and Reynolds and Nusselt num-
bers definitions for both cases. The following analogy for the
thermal entrance length is obtained
2xPP 
xuc 5 x (21)
dh PP
and for the Nusselt number, a similar analogy can be found
dh
Nuuc 5 NuPP (22)
2xPP
In this way, it is now possible the comparison of the Nusselt
numbers computed for the unit cell at the fourth row, with the
equivalent values obtained for laminar flow between parallel
plates, using the analogue Eqs. 19 through 22. However, direct
comparison is only meaningful if the hydrodynamic conditions
lead to similar flow patterns for both cases.
From Figure 6, it is observable that parallel and segregated
flow in NETmix occurs only at low Reynolds number
ðRein < 10Þ and Figure 7 shows that the Nusselt numbers
obtained from simulations for the NUB model agrees well
with the analytical solutions for laminar flow between parallel
plates, in the whole range of working regimes, for constant
Rein 510. In these NUB simulations, the variations in the
dimensionless entrance length were obtained by changing the
Prandtl number of the fluid. Also, the comparison is done by
computing the Nusselt numbers only for the constant wall heat
Figure 7. Nusselt number as a function of the thermal
entrance length for the constant wall heat
flux simulation for Rein 5 10. NUB values
were computed for the unit cell in the fourth
row. x*uc is altered by changing the heat
capacity of the fluid.
2017 Vol. 00, No. 00 AIChE Journal

Figure 8. Nusselt number as a function of the thermal
entrance length for the wall constant temper-
ature simulation. NUB values were computed
for the unit cell in the fourth row. The dashed
line represents the new asymptotic value for
NETmix.
flux boundary condition for both laminar flow between parallel
plates and the NUB model.
The dependence of the unit cell Nusselt number on the
dimensionless thermal entrance length is shown in Figure 8,
for the simulations with constant wall temperature for the NUB
model and the analogue solution for laminar flow between par-
allel plates. With the increase of Reynolds number, the Nusselt
number values start to deviate from the expected value for the
flow between parallel plates, tending to a considerably higher
asymptotic value, represented by the dashed line in Figure 8.
This behavior is expected from the evolution of the flow pat-
terns analysis in Figures 5 and 6. This augmented heat transfer
capability clearly demonstrates the impact of the vortices gen-
eration on the Nusselt number, as this increase is not only due
to the reduction of the boundary-layer thickness alone. In fact,
the vortices have an important impact in reducing the
boundary-layer thickness, thus enhancing the heat transfer
rates. This behavior is observed after Rein > 20. However,
when the critical Reynolds number is reached, the Nusselt
number tends to a new asymptotic curve, parallel to the one
observed for parallel plates. The effect of the existence of 3-D
flow in the chambers due to the dynamic oscillatory regime is
responsible for the observed enhancement of the heat transfer
rate when compared to the rate obtained for flow between par-
allel plates. In the low Reynolds number region, NETmix
presents the same behavior as parallel plates, in agreement
with the previous observations. The comparison for constant
wall heat flux, as well as the new asymptotic NETmix values
in the dashed line, is shown in Figure 9. The flow behavior pre-
sented by NUB is similar to what is observed for constant wall
temperature simulations, but in this case the NUB Nusselt dif-
ference with parallel plates is even larger.
Furthermore, it also observed that, for large Reynolds num-
ber, Rein > 150, where flow oscillations are fully developed,
the Nusselt number values determined at the other rows of the
NUB model (rows 1, 2, and 3), are constant and equal to the
values computed at the fourth row presented in Figures 8 and
9, that is, they become independent of the distance from the
inlet. This means that for large Reynolds numbers, the average
NETmix unit cell Nusselt number is constant and equal for all
chambers, whereas for low Reynolds numbers, the Nusselt
AIChE Journal 2017 Vol. 00, No. 00 Published on behalf of the AIChE
number gradually decreases within the reactor. The flow dis-
turbances that occur in the chambers due to the impinging jets
interactions result in flow instabilities and oscillations result-
ing in a constant boundary layer thickness, even in the first
rows of cells. This is a significant aspect as it maximizes and
homogenizes the heat transfer capacity of the NETmix
throughout its whole domain.
NETmix heat transfer performance
The predictions of Nusselt numbers in the NUB model are
crucial for the determination of the heat transfer capacity of
NETmix, and for its comparison with the most common tech-
nologies used at laboratorial or industrial scales used for heat
transfer, such as shell and tube, and plate heat exchangers. The
predicted NETmix Nusselt numbers are compared in Figure
10 with the Nusselt numbers of fully developed flow in tubes
and between parallel plates, for both laminar and turbulent
regimes. In both, the heat transfer resistance was estimated for
just the inner side of the system, that is, the heat transfer by
conduction through lateral solid surfaces and the external heat
transfer resistance were not considered.
In Figure 10, the Nusselt numbers for fully developed flow
in NETmix, previously computed and analyzed in Figure 5,
are presented within the laminar regime by fitting the simula-
tion results by a fitting curve, as well as the points obtained
from CFD simulations. Nusselt numbers for fully developed
laminar flow in tubes and between parallel plates are also rep-
resented in Figure 10, for a direct comparison with NETmix,
being constant and independent of Reynolds number, and are
available in literature19,20 from the analytical solution. Nusselt
numbers for fully developed turbulent flows in pipes and
between parallel plates are also shown in Figure 10, and
strongly depend on the Reynolds and Prandtl numbers, being
estimated from correlations existing in literature. The Dittus-
Boelter correlation23 is widely used for the determination of
Nusselt number in tubes, while for flow between plates, a simi-
lar correlation can be found.24 In both cases, the Prandtl num-
ber used is that of water at temperature of 258C ðPr  7Þ.
The different devices and flow regimes are compared in Fig-
ure 10, where it can be observed, that within the range of this
study, for the typical NETmix operational Reynolds numbers
Figure 9. Nusselt number as a function of the thermal
entrance length for the constant wall heat
flux simulation. NUB values were computed
for the unit cell in the fourth row. The dashed
line represents the new asymptotic value for
NETmix.
DOI 10.1002/aic 9

Figure 10. Thermally fully developed Nusselt number
as a function of the Reynolds number for
fully developed laminar flow in pipes and
between parallel plates,19,20 turbulent flow
between pipes and parallel plates23 and for
NETmix device (obtained in this work).
between 100 and 1000, the NETmix presents Nusselt numbers
2–3 times larger than those of laminar flow in tubes or
between parallel plates. For low Reynolds numbers, the
absence of significant flow disturbances (such as vortices or
oscillations) in NETmix results in a constant Nusselt number.
However, the presence of vortices and oscillations causes a
significant increase in the Nusselt numbers, and at or above
the critical Reynolds number, the Nusselt number is larger for
the NETmix than for tubes and plates.
However, the overall heat transfer performance of different devi-
ces cannot be solely compared based in Nusselt number compari-
sons (and hence, heat transfer coefficients). The heat transfer
capacity of heat exchange equipment, is also determined by the
availability of area for heat transfer. Therefore, a comparison of
active specific surface area for heat transfer, for different heat
exchange equipment cannot be neglected. For that, the most com-
monly used equipment for reaction coupled with heat exchange are
considered here for comparison purposes, namely: stirred tanks
with external jacket or internal serpentines; jacketed tubular reac-
tors; stirred tanks with external heat exchangers; microreactors.
The specific area of NETmix, Atransf =V, is determined from
geometrical considerations, using the unit cell dimensions.
NETmix has a similar geometry when compared to parallel
plates. However, there is a reduction of the effective exchange
area of NETmix when compared with parallel plates with the
same plate clearance x as NETmix. For the unit cell dimen-
sions used in the NUB model (see Figure 2), an area reduction
of 27% relatively to parallel plates is verified, even if the lat-
eral areas are considered. The specific surface area of NETmix
considering the lateral areas is estimated from
 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi  Stirred tank—
literature.25,26 For tubular reactors and microreactors, geomet-
rical definitions are used in order to determine the specific sur-
face area, as they can be conceptualized as cylinders/tubes in
direct contact with the cooling fluid.
Due to the fact that reactors/exchangers may present differ-
ent sizes, the specific areas of equipment area are determined
within a specific range, considering a minimum and a maxi-
mum characteristic dimension, in agreement with typical val-
ues used in these technologies, for active area determination.
Specific surface areas of different heat exchange equipment
are available in Table 2, as well as the characteristic dimen-
sions for each type of equipment, if applicable. Table 2 shows
that NETmix presents 2–3 orders of magnitude larger specific
surface area for heat transfer than the most commonly used
technologies, such as stirred tanks and tubular reactors. Due to
the NETmix geometry and small size, it presents a specific
surface area comparable with that of microreactors, which are
known to have large surface/volume ratios.27,28 This result
shows that NETmix has the potential to remove large amounts
of heat per volume of fluid.
Finally, the specific heat transfer capacity for different tech-
nologies can be determined by multiplying the heat transfer
coefficient and the specific surface area
^ Atransf
h5hhi t (24)
V
where h^ is the specific heat transfer capacity.
The specific heat transfer capacity range for each equipment
is computed using the lower/upper bound values of the specific
surface area, from Table 2, and the corresponding characteris-
tic dimensions, to determine the heat transfer coefficient from
Nusselt number. For stirred tanks, heat transfer coefficient
range boundaries are obtained from literature.26,29 No infor-
mation regarding Reynolds number is given by Trambouze
et al.26 and Ferrouillat et al.29 However, these devices usually
operate in turbulent regimes, to maximize heat fluxes. In this
case, the lower bound of the specific heat transfer capacity is
determined using the lower bound value of specific surface
area and the smaller value of heat transfer coefficient, while
the upper bound value is computed using the larger values of
specific surface area and heat transfer coefficients. For tubular
reactors, the Nusselt number is determined using correlations
for turbulent flow in tubes,19,23 assuming a Reynolds number
of 104 for the lower bound value of specific heat transfer
capacity, and 105 for the upper bound value, as this is the typi-
cal range of operation of liquid tubular reactors. For the spe-
cific case of microfluidic devices, due to its characteristic
sizes, operation Reynolds number is very small, typically in
Table 2. Surface to Volume Ratio of Typical Heat Exchange
Equipment
Heat Transfer
Atransf =V Reynolds  Coefficient 
Device ðm2  m23 Þ Number W  m22  K21
Stirred tank— 2–925,26 103 2105 60–200025
Jacket
0.5–2025,26 103 2105 700–300025
  112x1 8 L2 D2 2d2 d 1 x d Serpentine
Atransf 1 D p D D D D Stirred tank— 5–1029 103 2105 100029
  pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi  (23) External
V x 1 2
1 4 L2 D 2d d
2
2 p D D heat exchanger
Tubular reactor 15–40029 104 2105 150–8000
For stirred tanks with cooling jackets, internal serpentine or Microreactors 2000–4000035 1–5032 60–160034
external heat exchangers, specific areas were obtained from NETmix 1500–11000 150–60012,15 10000–60000

10 DOI 10.1002/aic Published on behalf of the AIChE 2017 Vol. 00, No. 00 AIChE Journal
 Figure 11. Specific heat transfer capacity of typical heat exchangers equipment.
the order of 1 or even lower,30,31 in conditions where the flow
is fully laminar and parallel. Microfluidic devices can be seen
as a tube, or a rectangular duct with aspect ratio close to 1, hav-
ing micrometric dimensions. Therefore, assuming a Re51 and
a tube diameter of 2.5 mm (the larger characteristic dimension
considered in the analysis in Table 2), it is possible to verify,
using the analogue for tubes of Eq. 12, that it is necessary only
1.5 mm to achieve the region where the inverse of the Graetz
number is large enough to consider a fully developed thermal
boundary-layer.19 As microfluidics typically have lengths of a
few centimetres, it is assumed that microfluidics mostly oper-
ate in the fully developed region. Few studies using larger
Reynolds numbers are described. However, due to the increase
of the pressure drop, microreactors are usually operated at rela-
tively low Reynolds numbers. For this analysis, it is considered
that the Reynolds numbers in the microchannels varies from 1
to 50 (however, it is typically observed lower values).32
It is important however to note, that when the channel’s
dimensions are within the micrometer range, usually lower
Nusselt numbers than the ones obtained from laminar flow in
pipes or parallel plates are obtained.33 Peng et al.34 determined
the Nusselt numbers for several microchannels geometries and
Reynolds numbers within the laminar flow regime, and pro-
posed an empirical correlation similar to the Dittus-Boelter
correlation, by changing the constant for laminar flow in
microchannels. Peng et al.34 focused their study on the Reyn-
olds number range of 50 to 4000, and observed that the lami-
nar transition never occurred at Reynolds numbers lower than
200. Therefore, the range of Reynolds number of interest in
the present study (1 to 50) is always within the laminar flow
regime, thus enabling the use of the correlations presented by
Peng et al.34 The heat transfer coefficient in microchannel is
determined using the information provided by Peng et al.34
For NETmix, it is considered that the Reynolds number is
equal to 600, within the laminar regime but in conditions
AIChE Journal 2017 Vol. 00, No. 00 Published on behalf of the AIChE
where the flow is fully dynamic and chaotic. Therefore, the
Nusselt number is determined at Re5600, considering con-
stant wall temperature.
The specific heat transfer capacity range of each of the con-
sidered equipment is shown in Figure 11. The results from
Figure 11 highlight the great potential of the use of NETmix
as a reactor with an outstanding heat transfer rate when com-
pared with the most commonly used technologies for reaction
coupled with heat exchange. The difference from stirred tanks
and NETmix is further accentuated coupling the surface area
and the heat transfer coefficient, resulting in five orders of
magnitude larger in some conditions. It is possible to verify
that NETmix is capable to remove heat at a rate that is almost
one order of magnitude larger than microreactors, due to mix-
ing induced by oscillations. In microreactors, the flow is lami-
nar and mixing is mostly due to molecular diffusion, therefore,
low convection rates are observed, leading to small heat trans-
fer coefficients.
These results validate the capability of NETmix to outper-
form the most common reaction devices coupled with heat
exchange, being a reaction device with low power require-
ments, high mixing intensity, high throughput potential and
enhanced heat transfer, essential for highly exo/endothermic
reactions.
Conclusions
In this study, the heat transfer performance of the static
mixer NETmix was assessed and quantified. The study is
based on CFD simulations of a previously developed15 3-D
model of NETmix.
The NETmix average unit cell Nusselt number was deter-
mined for different Reynolds numbers, and for two different
boundary conditions: constant wall temperature and constant
wall heat flux. In both cases, it was observed that the Nusselt
number increases with increasing Reynolds number. It is
DOI 10.1002/aic 11
observed that the existence of hot-spots is reduced when the nx = number of NETmix rows
flow patterns present an oscillatory behavior, and the remain- ny = number of NETmix columns
ing are renewed with time, leading to a more efficient mixing p= pressure, Pa
Pr = Prandtl number
and heat transfer. q_ = boundary condition heat flux, W
This study suggests that for large Reynolds numbers, 3–5 Q_ = heat flux, W
times higher heat transfer rates can be achieved when com- Re = Reynolds number
pared to flow between parallel plates. Maximum convective t= time, s
T= temperature, K
heat transfer coefficients are achieved when the flow inside the V= volume, m3
mixing chambers evolves to a self-sustained oscillatory lami- w= mass flow rate
nar flow regime. An important result obtained from these sim- x= entrance length, m
ulations is that, above the critical Reynolds number, the x = dimensionless entrance length
thermal boundary layer is renewed along the network of cham-
bers, enhancing the global heat transfer capacity of NETmix. Greek letters
From this study and from the flow patterns observed in C= gamma function
NETmix, a similar behavior and mass transfer rate enhance- Dt = simulation time step, s
ment is expected. Therefore, NETmix can be a mixing device DT = temperature difference, K
Dx = grid element size, m
particularly suited to handle reactions where fast interfacial j= thermal conductivity, W  m21  K21
mass transfer is required, such as heterogeneous catalytic and j
= spatial average thermal conductivity, W  m21  K21
gas–liquid reactions. l= viscosity, Pa  s
The specific heat transfer capacity of NETmix was com- q= density, kg  m23
pared to other commercially available technologies. It is s= residence time, s

s= stress tensor, Pa
observed that NETmix presents 2–5 orders of magnitude ~t= velocity vector, m  s21
higher specific heat transfer capacity than most of the technol- t = mean velocity, m  s21
ogies used industrially, such as stirred tanks with jackets or x= height/gap distance between plates, m
tubular reactors, and nearly one order of magnitude larger spe- ~=
x vorticity vector, s21
cific heat transfer capacity than microreactors. This NETmix Subscripts
performance is due to its very large surface to volume ratio
b= bulk
together with the heat transfer coefficient enhancement exhib- channel = NETmix channel
ited from the CFD simulations and Nusselt number in = inlet
computations. int = interval
This work has shown that the NETmix mixer/reactor is a loc = local
max = maximum
proficient technology to remove/supply heat from/to a fluid, out = outlet
making it suitable for fast reactions where heat transfer is the PP = parallel plates
kinetically limiting step, and for highly exo/endothermic reac- uc = NETmix unit cell
tions, increasing the overall production capacity of the wall = wall
process. x= x direction
z= z direction

Acknowledgments Abbreviations
This work was financially supported by: Project UID/ CFD = Computational Fluid Dynamics
NUB = NETmix Unit Block
EQU/50020/2013 – POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006984 – Asso- RAM = Random Access Memory
ciate Laboratory LA LSRE-LCM funded by FEDER funds
through COMPETE2020 – Programa Operacional Competiti-
vidade e Internacionalizaç~ao (POCI) – and by national funds
Literature Cited
through FCT – Fundaç~ao para a Ci^encia e Tecnologia. M. F. 1. Szalai ES, Muzzio FJ. Fundamental approach to the design and opti-
Costa and C. M. Fonte gratefully acknowledge their Ph.D. mization of static mixers. AIChE J. 2003;49(11):2687–2699.
2. Thakur RK, Vial C, Nigam KDP, Nauman EB, Djelveh G. Static
scholarship from Fundaç~ao para a Ci^encia e Tecnologia mixers in the process industries—a review. Chem Eng Res Des.
(FCT) SFRH/BD/87817/2012 and SFRH/BD/39040/2007, 2003;81(7):787–826.
respectively. 3. Meijer HEH, Singh MK, Anderson PD. On the performance of static
mixers: a quantitative comparison. Prog Polym Sci. 2012;37(10):
1333–1349.
Notation 4. Rohsenow WM, Hartnett JP, Cho YI. Handbook of Heat Transfer.
A= area, m2 New York, NY, USA: McGraw-Hill, 1998.
Atransf = active area for heat exchange, m2 5. Mokrani A, Castelain C, Peerhossaini H. The effects of chaotic
C0 = configuration flow constant, W  m22  K21 advection on heat transfer. Int J Heat Mass Transfer. 1997;40(13):
cP = specific heat capacity, J  kg21  K21 3089–3104.
d= NETmix channel’s diameter/depth, m 6. Kumar V, Saini S, Sharma M, Nigam KDP. Pressure drop and heat
D= NETmix chamber’s diameter, m transfer study in tube-in-tube helical heat exchanger. Chem Eng Sci.
dh = hydraulic diameter, m 2006;61(13):4403–4416.
~
g= gravitational acceleration vector, m  s22 7. Ghanem A, Lemenand T, Della Valle D, Peerhossaini H. Static
h= convective heat transfer coefficient, W  m22  K21 mixers: mechanisms, applications, and characterization methods – a
h^ = specific heat transfer capacity, W  m23  K21 review. Chem Eng Res Des. 2014;92(2):205–228.
i= inlets 8. Lammers G, Beenackers AACM. Heat transfer and the continuous
j= outlets production of hydroxypropyl starch in a static mixer reactor. Chem
L= distance from centres of two adjacent NETmix chambers, m Eng Sci. 1994;49(24, Part 2):5097–5107.
~
n= unit vector 9. Joshi P, Nigam KDP, Nauman EB. The kenics static mixer: new
Nu = Nusselt number data and proposed correlations. Chem Eng J. 1995;59:265–271.

12 DOI 10.1002/aic Published on behalf of the AIChE 2017 Vol. 00, No. 00 AIChE Journal
10. Li HZ, Fasol C, Choplin L. Hydrodynamics and heat transfer of rhe-
ologically complex fluids in a sulzer SMX static mixer. Chem Eng
Sci. 1996;51(10):1947–1955.
11. Lopes JCB, Laranjeira PE, Dias MM, Martins AA. Inventors. Net-
work Mixer and Related Mixing Process. PCT/IB2005/000647, Feb-
ruary 2005. European Patent EP172643 B1, October 2008. 2005.
R
12. Laranjeira PE, Martins AA, Lopes JCB, Dias MM. NETmixV, a new
type of static mixer: modeling, simulation, macromixing, and micro-
mixing characterization. AIChE J. 2009;55(9):2226–2243.
13. Laranjeira PE, Martins AA, Nunes MI, Lopes JCB, Dias MM.
R
NETmixV, a new type of static mixer: experimental characterization
and model validation. AIChE J. 2011;57(4):1020–1032.
14. Gomes PJ, Fonte CP, Santos RJ, Dias MM, Lopes JCB. Experimen-
tal and numerical characterization and quantification of mixing in a
R
NETmixV reactor. Paper presented at ECCE 7 - 7th European Con-
gress of Chemical Engineering & CHISA 2010- 19th international
Congress and Process Engineering, Prague, Czech Republic, Septem-
ber 2010.
15. Fonte CM, Leblebici ME, Dias MM, Lopes JCB. The NETmix reac-
tor: pressure drop measurements and 3D CFD modeling. Chem Eng
Res Des. 2013;91(11):2250–2258.
16. Silva VM, Quadros PA, Laranjeira PE, Dias MM, Lopes JCB. A
novel continuous industrial process for producing hydroxyapatite
nanoparticles. J Dispersion Sci Technol. 2008;29(4):542–547.
17. Gomes PJ, Silva VM, Quadros PA, Dias MM, Lopes JCB. A highly
reproducible continuous process for hydroxyapatite nanoparticles
synthesis. J Nanosci Nanotechnol. 2009;9(6):3387–3395.
18. Lide DR. CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics: A Ready-
Reference Book of Chemical and Physical Data. Boca Raton, FL,
USA: CRC Press, 2004.
19. Bird RB, Stewart WE, Lightfoot EN. Transport Phenomena, 2nd ed.
New York, NY, USA: Wiley, 2002.
20. Shah RK, London AL. Laminar Flow Forced Convection in Ducts.
New York, NY, USA: Academic Press, 1978.
21. Ottino JM. The Kinematics of Mixing: Stretching, Chaos, and Trans-
port. Cambridge University Press, 1989.
AIChE Journal 2017 Vol. 00, No. 00 Published on behalf of the AIChE
22. Amon CH, Guzman AM, Morel B. Lagrangian Chaos, Eulerian
Chaos, and Mixing Enhancement in Converging–Diverging Channel
Flows. Phys Fluids. 1996;8(5):1192–1206.
23. Dittus FW, Boelter LMK. Heat transfer in automobile radiators of
the tubular type. Int Commun Heat Mass Transfer. 1985;12(1):3–22.
€
24. Shibani AA, Ozisik MN. A solution to heat transfer in turbulent flow
between parallel plates. Int J Heat Mass Transfer. 1977;20(5):565–573.
25. Villermaux J. G enie de la R eaction Chimique: Conception et Fonc-
tionnement des R eacteurs. Tec & Doc, 1993.
26. Trambouze P, Euzen JP. Les R eacteurs Chimiques - Conception,
Calcul, Mise en Oeuvre. Editions Technip, 1984.
27. Kiwi-Minsker L, Renken A. Microstructured reactors for catalytic
reactions. Catal Today. 2005;110(1-2):2–14.
28. Kashid MN, Kiwi-Minsker L. Microstructured reactors for multi-
phase reactions: state of the art. Ind Eng Chem Res. 2009;48(14):
6465–6485.
29. Ferrouillat S, Tochon P, Della Valle D, Peerhossaini H. Open loop
thermal control of exothermal chemical reactions in multifunctional
heat exchangers. Int J Heat Mass Transfer. 2006;49(15):2479–2490.
30. Janasek D, Franzke J, Manz A. Scaling and the design of miniatur-
ized chemical-analysis systems. Nature. 2006;442(7101):374–380.
31. Tabeling P, Chen S. Introduction to Microfluidics. OUP Oxford, 2005.
32. Sen N, Singh KK, Mukhopadhyay S, Shenoy KT. Comparison of
different microreactors for solvent-free, continuous synthesis of
[EMIM][EtSO4] ionic liquid: an axperimental and CFD study. J Mol
Liq. 2016;222:622–631.
33. Rebrov EV, Schouten JC, de Croon MHJM. Single-phase fluid flow
distribution and heat transfer in microstructured reactors. Chem Eng
Sci. 2011;66(7):1374–1393.
34. Peng XF, Peterson GP, Wang BX. Heat transfer characteristic of
water flowing through microchannels. Exp Heat Transfer. 1994;7(4):
265–283.
35. Jahnisch K, Hessel V, Lowe H, Baerns M. Chemistry in microstruc-
tured reactors. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2004;43(4):406–446.
Manuscript received Oct. 28, 2016, and revision received Mar. 23, 2017.
DOI 10.1002/aic 13