Performance Analysis and Optimization of a Venturi-Type Hydrogen-Natural Gas Mixer

Blending hydrogen into existing natural-gas pipeline networks provides a practicable route toward future low-carbon applications. A Venturi-type mixer is a classical high-efficiency static gas-mixing device, and clarifying the effects of its structural parameters is important for efficient transport and downstream combustion stability. In this study, numerical simulations were performed in ANSYS Fluent 2024 R1. The contraction angle, throat length, and diffuser angle were selected as representative structural variables. First, the independent effects of these variables on the mixing process were examined through single-factor simulations. Then, three key levels of the three structural parameters were selected to establish a Box-Behnken experimental matrix for response-surface modeling. Based on the numerical results, entropy weighting and a genetic algorithm were used for multi-objective optimization, and the final solution was verified using the TOPSIS method. The results show that the optimized Venturi-type mixing device with optimized parameters of a contraction angle of 20.7°, a throat length of 60 mm, and a diffuser angle of 5° can reduce flow energy loss while maintaining high mixing uniformity. The diffuser angle is the dominant geometric parameter affecting both energy loss and mixing behavior. Compared with the reference central-point structure design, the overall TOPSIS score of the optimized structure increased from 0.41 to 0.82; the pressure loss decreased from 258.94 Pa to 206 Pa, corresponding to a reduction of approximately 20%; and the final-section mixing uniformity decreased only slightly, from 97.85% to 97.43%.