TAN, Beng Hee Reginald

Associate Professor

PhD (Chem. Eng.) Camb., 1989
MEng (Chem. Eng.) NUS, 1986
BSc (Chem. Eng.) London, 1984

Contact information
Blk E5, 4 Engineering Drive 4, #02-14, Singapore 117576
Tel: (65) 6516 6360    Fax: (65) 6779 1936
Email: chetanbh@nus.edu.sg

Personal Home Page

RESEARCH

Hydrodynamics and Mixing in Gas-Liquid Systems

Gas-liquid contacting devices are critical in separation processes and multiphase reactors. We are studying bubble formation and weeping at orifices, froth to spray transition on sieve trays, hydrodynamics, mass transfer in an air-lift reactor, and modelling of mixing in circulating systems. On-going work is focused on theoretical modelling and numerical simulation, as well as experimental verification of these models.

Fluid-Particle Mechanics

Interactions between a fluid and a particulate phase occur in a wide range of chemical engineering operations. Our ongoing research is in the areas of CFD simulation solids mixing and segregation, diagnosis of solids handling processes, hopper flow and pneumatic transport of granular materials, fluid-particle jets, and characterisation of cake properties in filtration, including compressibility, porosity, permeability, and internal stresses of the filter cake.

Control of Crystal Size and Morphology in Crystallization Processes

Our group collaborates with the Institute of Chemical & Engineering Sciences (ICES) to investigate mixing effects in antisolvent crystallization, integrated CFD and population balance modeling, the phenomenon of ‘oiling-out’ or phase separation in supersaturated solutions, and on-line monitoring and control of crystallization processes, especially in protein and pharmaceutical systems.

Numerical simulation of antisolvent
crystallization: transient concentration
profile

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

W.B. Chen and R.B.H. Tan, “Theoretical Analysis of Two-Phase Bubble Formation in an Immiscible Liquid”, AIChE Journal, in press (2003).

W.X. Zhang and R.B.H. Tan, “A Model for Bubble Formation and Weeping with Liquid Cross Flow”, Chemical Engineering Science, 58, 287 (2003).

P.S. Chow, X.Y. Liu, J. Zhang and R.B.H.Tan, “Spherulitic Growth Kinetics of Protein Crystals”, Applied Physics Letters, 81, 1975 (2002).

N.C.S. Kee and R.B.H. Tan, “CFD Simulation of Solids Suspension in Mixing Vessels”, Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, 80, 721 (2002).

C. Tien, S.K. Teoh and R.B.H. Tan, “Cake Filtration Analysis – the effect of the relationship between pore liquid pressure and cake compressive stress”, Chemical Engineering Science, 56, 5361 (2001).