modelling drying and particle formation in spray towers
DESCRIPTION
modelling drying and particle formation in spray towers. Christopher Handscomb Wednesday 9 th May 2007. outline. Introduction to spray drying Modelling approach Continuous phase gas flow Single particle drying Conclusions and further work. what is spray drying?. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
vapour bubble formation
water removed by evaporation
‘blown shell’
modelling drying and particle formation in spray towers
Christopher Handscomb
Wednesday 9th May 2007
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
outline
• Introduction to spray drying
• Modelling approach
• Continuous phase gas flow
• Single particle drying
• Conclusions and further work
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
• An important technology in industry
• Used to produce, for example:– Pharmaceuticals– Food stuffs (e.g. milk powder and coffee)– Detergents
• Unique drying technology combining moisture removal and particle formation
what is spray drying?
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
what is spray drying?
Feed
Atomisation
rotary atomizer pressure nozzle
Spray-Air Contact
co-current mixedcounter-current
Spray EvaporationPowder
Separation
product discharge from chamber and
separation unit
total product discharge from separation unit
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
motivation
A computational model would…
• predict the effect of process conditions on final product properties
• guide the operator towards safe and efficient operating conditions
• facilitate the design of new plant based on physics, rather than correlations
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
modelling approach
Co
nti
nu
ou
s P
ha
se
(C
FD
)Sub Models
Particle Drying
Particle-Particle Interaction
Particle-Wall Interaction
• Adopt an Eulerian-Lagrangian framework
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
continuous phase
• Commercial CFD package – STAR CD – used to model the continuous phase– Well known in industry– Easy to test different geometries– Relatively simple to incorporate sophisticated
user defined sub models
• Test geometry developed representing a generic spray dryer
• Counter current dryer• Single spray nozzle• Height: 22m• Diameter: 4m• 118,807 cells in CFD mesh
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
continuous phase
• Can fairly easily produce plots of the flow field
z=0.5m
z= 4m
• Consider a single droplet
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
• Consider the drying sub-model
• Modelling assumptions:– Three component system:
A – solvent; B – solute; D – solid
– Spherical particles, 1D model– Small Biot number uniform particle temperature– Allow for a single centrally located bubble
single particle drying
Assumed ideal binary solution
time
drop
let t
empe
ratu
re
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
time
drop
let t
empe
ratu
resingle particle drying
wet bulb temperature
boiling temperature
Cheyne, A., Wilson, I., and Bridgewater, J. (2002).
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
single particle drying
• Spherical symmetry reduce to 1-D
• Solve for the moments of this equation
internal coordinates external coordinates
advection terms diffusion terms source term
• Population balance for solids
Cheyne, A., Wilson, I., and Bridgewater, J. (2002).
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
single particle drying
• Variable of interest is solids volume fraction
• Related to the moments of the population balance equation by:
• Obtained by solving the moment system:
assumed independent of internal coordinate (particle size)
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
evolution advection diffusion crystallization
single particle drying
• Volume averaged transport equations for the continuous phase
• Advection velocity calculated from volume conservation considerations
• Diffusion coefficient from measurements
Volume AveragesSuperficial
Intrinsic
Total
R(c)
S
z
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
single particle drying
• Population balance boundary conditions
• Solute boundary conditions
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
moving boundary
• Moving boundary handled through a standard coordinate transformation r z:
• This adds a ‘virtual flux’ to all equations
virtual flux
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
solution method
• Problem is a system of PDEs
and coupled ODEs
• Solved using Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG) library routines for convection-diffusion type equations
• Finite Volume approach with user-defined flux function
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
new drying model – example
• Model described so far can simulate
up to the point of shell formation
• e.g. Consider a system:– Initial 14wt% sodium sulphate solution – no solids– Crystallisation model from Rosenblatt et al. (1984):
‘Kinetics of Phase Transitions in the System Sodium Sulphate-Water’
– Droplet diameter = 1.78mm– Drying air T = 373K– Droplets initially well mixed
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
new drying model – example
0 20 40 60 80 100 1200
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5Simulated vs. Experimental Mass of the Drying Droplet
Time/s
Dro
plet
Mas
s/m
g
Experiment
Model
• Compare with experimental data from Nesic and Vodnik (1990) Kinetics of Droplet Evaporation Chem. Eng. Sci.
Experimental data from Nesic and Vodnik (1990) Kinetics of Droplet Evaporation Chem. Eng. Sci.
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
new drying model – example
0 20 40 60 80 100 12020
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110Simulated vs. Experimental Temperature of the Drying Droplet
Time/s
Dro
plet
Tem
pera
ture
/C
Experiment
Model
Experimental data from Nesic and Vodnik (1990) Kinetics of Droplet Evaporation Chem. Eng. Sci.
But the new model can give us much more…
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
new drying model – example
0 20 40 60 80 100 1200
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3Simulated Evolution of the Solvent, Solute and Solids Masses
Time/s
Mas
s/m
g
Solvent Mass
Solute MassSolids Mass
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
new drying model – example
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
x 10-4
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1Simulated Continuous Phase Solvent Mass Fraction in a Drying Droplet
Radial Position/mm
Sol
ute
Mas
s F
ract
ion
[-]
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
new drying model – example
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
x 10-4
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7Simulated Solids Volume Fraction in a Drying Droplet
Radial Position/mm
Sol
ids
Vol
ume
Fra
ctio
n [-
]
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
new drying model – example
0 20 40 60 80 100 1200
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2x 10
-5Simulated Evolution of moments integrated over the drying droplet
Time/s
Inte
grat
ed N
orm
alis
ed M
omen
tsZeroth Moment
First MomentSecond Moment
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
conclusions…
• Introduction to spray drying and the associated modelling challenges
• Results of continuous phase simulation
• Overview of a new drying model
• Comparison with experiments for a ‘simple’ case…
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
…work not shown…
• Drying after shell formation
• Simulation of detergent droplets drying with experimental comparison
• Simplified drying models implemented in CFD code
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
…and further work
• Obtain data and validate model for high temperature drying
• Couple (simplified) model to CFD simulation
• Compare with existing drying models when used in CFD
Christopher Handscomb([email protected])
acknowledgements