Novel scale-up strategy based on three-dimensional shear space for animal cell culture

•A scale up strategy based on 3D shear space was proposed for the first time.•Shear rate in different bioreactors were quantified by computational fluid dynamics.•The optimal agitation rate was minimized to 10 rpm according to the 3D shear space.•Single shear parameter failed to guide the scale-up of Spodoptera frugiperda Sf9.•Cell culture of Sf9 was scaled up to a 1000 L bioreactor directly by this strategy.