On 16/03/2023, Qi SHI, Sakai labo, Department of Nuclear Engineering and Management,  (D3）, received “The Best Student Award” at the 88th Annual Meeting of The Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan.

〈Name of award and short explanation about the award〉

The Best Student Award

This award is given to the most outstanding poster presentations by students at SCEJ 88th Annual Meeting.

〈About awarded research〉

Powder mixing via tumbling container blender is frequently employed during the manufacturing of powder products. In this process, the airflow inside the blender may significantly influence the fine particle mixing. By employing flexible Euler-Lagrange method with an implicit algorithm (FELMI), this study discussed the airflow effect on fine particle mixing in depth via mixing pattern, mixing efficiency, and particle-fluid dynamics. It was clarified for the first time that airflow improved the mixing efficiency of fine particles in the container blender. The improvement was caused by the circulating gas flow along blender rotation, which exerted considerable fluid drag force on the fine particles to induce rapid motions. The findings may provide a promising route for the mixing process optimization in industries.

〈Your impression & future plan〉

It is my great honor to win this award. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to every member in my lab who has given me help and valuable comments during the research, especially my supervisor Prof. Mikio Sakai, Dr. Guangtao Duan, Dr. Shuo Li and Mr. Rui Li. In the future, I will try to extend the work with more industrial related conditions.