CFD-aided population balance modeling of a spray drying process

Due to the widespread application of spray dryers, the model-based optimization and control of the pro-cess are of great interest. Therefore, a reduced order model based on a population balance approach for the spray drying process is developed to accurately capture the shrinkage and drying mechanisms. The population balances describe the two-dimensional distribution of the moisture content and the granule size. The model is validated by experiments in a pilot scale spray dryer. Information from CFD simulations and previous single droplet experiments are used to determine suitable model parameters. The results show a good agreement of the model with experimental findings and promote the suitability of the pop-ulation balance approach. Furthermore, a novel method of extracting information on the trajectories from detailed CFD simulations and inserting them into the reduced order model is presented. This increases the accuracy of the model without changing the computational complexity.(c) 2022 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier BV and The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Due to the widespread use of spray dryers, the optimization and control of the process based on models are highly desired. In this study, a reduced order model based on a population balance approach is developed to accurately capture the shrinkage and drying mechanisms. The model is validated using experiments and suitable parameters are determined based on information from CFD simulations and previous droplet experiments. The results show good agreement between the model and experimental findings, highlighting the suitability of the population balance approach. Additionally, a novel method of incorporating trajectory information from detailed CFD simulations into the reduced order model is presented, improving model accuracy without increasing computational complexity.