Prediction of Air Flow, Temperature and Humidity Patterns in a Pilot Plant Spray Dryer

Abstract

This paper presents the prediction of air flow,humidity and temperature patterns in a cocurrentpilot plant spray dryer fitted with apressure nozzle using a three dimensionalmodel. The modeling was done with aComputational Fluid Dynamic package (Fluent6.3), in which the gas phase is modeled ascontinuum using the Euler approach and thedroplet/ particle phase is modeled by theDiscrete Phase model (Lagrangeapproach).Good agreement was obtained withpublished experimental data where the CFDsimulation correctly predicts a fast downwardcentral flowing core and slow recirculationzones near the walls.In this work, the effects of the air flow patternon droplets trajectories, residence timedistribution of droplets and deposition of thedroplets on the wall also were investigatedwhere atomizing of pure water was used.