The flow characteristics of liquid in a continous flow stirred tank reactor（CFSTR） with a 6-bladed turbine impeller was investigated. The inlet and the outlet were located at the bottom center and the top edge of the reactor, respectively.
For the CFSTR, three flow zones （inlet zone, impeller zone and recirculation zone） were assumed and the theoretical residence time distributions based on the flow patterns wer compared with the experimental ones.
For the case of the lower inlet flow rate and the lower agitation speed, the experimental results showed that the flow pattern of the inlet zone was considered to be plug flow nature. For the higher inlet flow rate as well as the higher agitation speed, however, the flow pattern of the inlet zone was considered to be perfect mixing zone due to the considerable recirculation flow.
The impeller zone has a perfect mixing nature and the magnitude of the perfect mixing zone increased with agitation speed.