THE ·EFFECT OF DROPLETS PARTICLE TRAJECTORIES IN SPRAY DRYERS

Abstract

In many unit operations involving particulate systems, it often becomes desirable to determine the paths described by the components parts either for purposes of design or improved operation, in particular, knowledge of spray trajectories in spray dryer where the slurry sprayed and drying agent (e.g. air ) are countercurrent, can improve the design of the column and choosing the optimum droplet and drying parameters. This work calculates the particle trajectories of different sized droplets sprayed from a rotary atomizer with different initial velocities. The droplets diameters employed include (a) O .000027m (b) O .00003465m (c) O .0000446m (d) O .0000574m (e) O .00007445m (t) O.00009855m (g) O .00013655m (h) O .00021095m and (i) O.0004128m sprayed with the different velocities of (a) 3.656m!s (b) 4.478m!s and (c) 5.171m!s. The results showed that the greater the droplet diameter and initial velocity, the greater the horizontal and vertical components of the distance traversed by the droplets and time required before free fall. This also translates to requirement for bigger chamber dimension of the spray dryer.