Spray drying is a widely used unit operation for producing particulate products directly from a liquid feed. Important processes that occur inside the spray dryer are droplet formation, droplet drying and interactions between droplets and recycled fines. Various studies have looked at the first two processes, but the latter phenomenon has received less attention. Literature on droplet-particle interaction which aims at quantitatively describing agglomeration in spray drying is scarce and mainly qualitative. For product quality the formation of agglomerates is often desirable. This thesis models and investigates the collisions of individual particles with single droplets. The surface tack of drying droplets has been identified as an important variable for the formation of agglomerates. In this thesis a novel method for measuring tack from the liquid phase has been further improved. The improvements are a more accurate load measurement, an automated control of the tack probe and an improved layout of the sample holder and probe. The key feature of the device is its ability to measure tack of drying droplets, whereas other devices measure tack by wetting a powder. Using our method the tack of a commonly spray dried product, yeast extract, has been measured. From these experiments it was found that with decreasing average moisture content the surface tack increases to a maximum. Below a critical average moisture content the surface of the droplet is dry and the tack rapidly decreases upon further drying. Another important parameter in determining the degree of agglomeration is the degree of penetration. If the particle penetrates the droplet too deeply, the agglomerate structure becomes too dense. To predict the penetration depth, a non-dimensional model has been developed. It describes the penetration of a particle into a liquid droplet during a head-on collision. It is based on a force balance and incorporates surface tension force, viscous force and capillary pressure force. The important parameters determining the collision outcome are the contact angle, the size of the droplet relative to the particle, the Reynolds and Weber numbers. For each contact angle an equilibrium penetration position exists, at this point the surface tension force vector is perpendicular to the penetration direction. Five different penetrations regimes are identified. At low Reynolds numbers, viscous forces dominate and the particle asymptotically travels towards the equilibrium position. Reducing the viscous drag force by increasing the Reynolds number results in initially overshooting the equilibrium position, but the surface tension force pulls the particle back, to attain the equilibrium in an oscillating motion. At even higher Reynolds numbers the particle fully penetrates the droplet, and reaches the centre of the droplet for even higher values for the Reynolds number. The ejection regime is found at high Reynolds number and low Weber numbers and the liquid should be non-wetting. Using the regime maps one is able to identify in which region a spray dryer is operating. Although the full penetration regimes are useful for capturing fines, it should be avoided when agglomeration is desired. The ejection regime should be avoided as well. To validate the model, impact experiments were carried out by dropping glass spheres on the surface of different liquids. These validation experiments were the first attempt to experimentally validate the collision of a single particle with a liquid surface. Besides yeast extract, which has non-Newtonian rheological properties, silicone oils with constant viscosities of 100 mPa•s and 1 Pa•s have been tested. The penetration over time for different impact velocities was determined by analysing high speed camera recordings. The typical penetration times ranged from 0.2 s to 2 s. To obtain accurate location data was recorded at frame rates up to 38 000 frames per second. Glass spheres, with a size of 2 mm were used to allow the visual tracking. Modelling the impacts showed that the model consistently predicted faster penetration times than were observed experimentally. The relative difference increased with increasing viscosity. A parameter fitting exercise showed that better agreement could be obtained by using a higher viscosity and a higher contact angle in the model. With this knowledge the most likely factor influencing the model-experiment mismatch was identified as being the dynamics of wetting of the particle surface. It was also found that using the dynamic contact angle in the model would improve its results. The non-Newtonian characteristics of the yeast extract resulted in the particle rebound and the formation of an air cavity upon impact. The tack measurement technique and penetration model presented in this thesis will be useful tools for the design of spray dryers. Recommendations are made for further model improvement. The experimental validation is the first attempt to validate the presented model. Future improvements are recommended and suggestions are presented.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T12:14:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1279127 bytes, checksum: 1105a6754e6a3c23ca4d9086f96248a1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-02-25 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / We study two problems involving granular media, the heat transport in viscous granular gases and the mechanical pulse propagation in a granular chains of toroidal ring. To study the heat transport in granular gases, we consider two mechanisms of viscous dissipation during collisions between grains. In the first mechanism, the dissipative force is proportional to the speed of the grain and dissipates not only energy but also momentum. On the other hand, the dissipative force is proportional to the relative velocity of grains and therefore conserves momentum when it dissipates energy. This allows us to explore the role of the conservation of momentum in the heat transport properties of one-dimensional nonlinear systems. We found a thermal conductivity not divergent with or without conservation of momentum. For the system where there is conservation of momentum we obtain the heat flux decreases faster than the energy loss by inelastic dissipation due to shocks, unlike what happens with the momentum conserving system, indicating that the conservation of momentum has a role relevant. We also implemented an approximation of binary collisions to study the propagation of pulses in a onedimensional chain of O-rings. In particular, we get the analytical results from which the pulse velocity is obtained by simple quadrature. The pulse velocity thus calculated is compared with the velocity obtained by numerical integration of the equations of motion. We study chains with and without precompression, chains precompressed by a constant force at both ends (constant precompression), chains precompressed by gravity (variable precompression). The application of binary collisions approximation for precompressed chains gives us an important generalization of a theory, which until then had been developed for chains without precompression, in other words sonic vacuum state. The velocities calculated using the approximation of binary collisions showed a good agreement with the results obtained from numerical simulations, with relative errors lesser than 8%. / Estudamos dois problemas envolvendo meios granulares, o transporte de calor em gases granulares viscosos e a propagação de pulsos mecânicos em cadeias granulares de anéis toróidais. Para estudar o transporte de calor em gases granulares, consideramos dois mecanismos de dissipação viscosa durante as colisões entre grãos. No primeiro mecanismo, a força dissipativa é proporcional á velocidade do grão e dissipa não apenas energia mas também momentum. No outro, a força dissipativa é proporcional a velocidade relativa dos grãos e portanto conserva momento mesmo quando dissipa energia. Isso nos permite explorar o papel da conservação do momento nas propriedades de transporte de calor desse sistema não linear unidimensional. Encontramos uma condutividade térmica não divergente com ou sem conservação de momento. Para o sistema onde não há conservação do momento obtemos que o fluxo de calor decresce mais rapidamente do que a perda de energia por dissipação devido aos choques inelásticos, diferente do que ocorre no sistema com momento conservado, indicando que a conservação de momento apresenta um papel relevante. Também implementamos uma aproximação de colisões binárias para estudar a propagação de pulsos em uma cadeia de unidimensional de anéis toroidais (O-rings). Em particular, chegamos a resultados analíticos a partir dos quais a velocidade do pulso é obtida por quadratura simples. A velocidade do pulso assim calculada é comparada com a velocidade obtida por integraçãoo numérica das equações de movimento. Estudamos cadeias com e sem precompressão, cadeias precomprimidas por uma força constante nas duas extremidades, (precompressão constante) e cadeias precomprimidas pela gravidade (precompressão variável). A aplicação da aproximação de colisões binárias para cadeias precomprimidas nos dá uma importante generalização de uma teoria que até então só havia sido desenvolvida para cadeias sem precompressão, ou seja, para cadeias em vácuo sônico. As velocidades calculadas usando a aproximação de colisões binárias apresentaram uma boa concordância com os resultados obtidos a partir das simulações numéricas, com erros relativos inferiores a 8%.