A review on different structures of crystallizers and internal flow field CFD analysis

The crystallizer is the core equipment in chemical, pharmaceutical, and material science fields. The structural design and internal flow field characteristics directly determine separation efficiency, crystallization product quality, and energy consumption. This work systematically reviews the research progress on crystallizer structure evolution and internal flow field analysis methods. First, the structural characteristics of different crystallizer types are summarized, revealing a development trend toward high efficiency, miniaturization, and integration. Second, research methods for analyzing flow fields in crystallizers are outlined, including experimental research and numerical simulation, and the flow field characteristics inside the crystallizer are revealed, which provides a theoretical basis for optimizing the crystallizer. Experimental studies directly obtain data by measuring flow field parameters, but such approaches incur high costs and struggle to fully reflect complex flow fields. With computational fluid dynamics technology, numerical simulation efficiently analyzes flow field characteristics and provides theoretical support for optimizing the crystallizer structure. Finally, structure optimization strategies based on flow field regulation are summarized. Future development directions are proposed, such as intelligent design, multi-flow field coupling simulation, and green energy-saving technology. This work aims to offer theoretical support and innovative ideas for efficient design and industrial application of crystallizers.