Bladeless mixer and system

A system for use in the mixing of a plurality of fluid streams comprising:

• a plurality of interconnected mixing devices in fluid transfer relation, each of said devices comprising chamber means for mixing said fluid streams and inlet and outlet passageway means, said inlet and said outlet passageway means being tangentially arranged with respect to said chamber means in each of said devices, respectively, for tangentially directing said fluid streams into and out from said inlet and outlet passageway means, said inlet passageway means introducing said streams into said chamber means in a first rotational direction and coacting with said chamber means for creating a converging inlet vortex of increasing rotational velocity in said first direction, said outlet passageway means extracting said vortex from said chamber means as an outlet vortex having a rotational direction opposite to said first direction, and interconnecting passageway means between the outlet passageway means and inlet passageway means of adjacent ones of said members for transferring the mixed fluid streams between said adjacent mixing devices.

A mixing device for use in mixing a plurality of streams, comprising:

• a member including a converging conical mixing chamber which extends from a first end toward said opposite end, and a second divering conical mixing chamber extending from the apex of said first chamber to said opposite end of said member;
• tangentially disposed circumferentially spaced inlet means for introducing said streams into said first chamber at the inlet end thereof in a first direction and tangentially disposed outlet means located at said opposite end of said member for extracting said mixed streams in a direction opposite to said first direction;
• and orifice means interconnecting said first and second mixing chamber for causing a converging helical vortex created in said first mixing chamber to translate linearly through said orifice means into said outlet mixing chamber at an increased velocity, wherein a diverging vortex is developed which has a rotational direction opposite to that of said converging helical vortex.

A system for use in the mixing of a plurality of fluid streams comprising in combination:

• a plurality of inter-connected mixing devices in fluid transfer relationship, each of said devices comprising chamber means for mixing said fluid streams and inlet and outlet passageway means, said inlet and said outlet passageway means being tangentially arranged with respect to said chamber means in each of said devices, respectively, for tangentially directing said fluid streams into said chamber means as a vortex having a first rotational direction and from said chamber means into said outlet passageway means in a rotational direction opposite from that of said first direction;
• seal means disposed between adjacent ones of said devices for enabling transfer of fluid streams between adjacent ones of said mixing devices without leakage and including apertures aligned with corresponding outlet and inlet passageway means of said adjacent devices.