Simulation of turbulent emulsification in a Sonolator mixer: Interpretation of drop breakage time

Ioannis Bagkeris, Vipin Michael, Robert Prosser, Adam Kowalski

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    This work investigates the simulation of dilute emulsions in a Model ACIP2 Sonolator using CFD and population balance methods. Two breakage frequency models are used, which differ in the expression of the drop breakage time. Drop breakage modeling based on homogenous isotropic turbulence (HIT) shows poor agreement of the Sauter mean diameter when compared to experiment; simulations with the empirical Alopaeus et al. (AS) [1] model yield better agreement. By perturbing the classical HIT spectrum, it is shown that the breakage time in the AS model corresponds to a non-isotropic energy spectrum 퐸(휅) ~ 휅−푝 with 푝>3. Such spectra have been observed in the non-isotropic near field in a Model A Sonolator, which provides a plausible explanation of why the AS model performs better than the HIT-based model.
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalChemical Engineering and Technology
    Early online date20 Mar 2019
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2019

    Keywords

    • emulsion
    • turbulence
    • high-pressure homogenizer
    • breakage frequency
    • drop breakup

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