Break‐Up of Nanoparticle Clusters—Process Modeling

Part of the 1st International Conference on Industrial Processes for Nano and Micro Products, London, 2007.

A general model for suspension formulation that includes effects of particle breakage and clustering on suspension structure and resulting rheology is applied here to simulate agglomerate dispersion. The model employs the QMOM population balance to simulate variation of agglomerate size and structure in a system of complex geometry. As an example of such system a rotor–stator mixer is applied. Simulations are performed with the CFD code Fluent supplemented with UDFs for process kinetics, aggregate structure, and suspension rheology. A method of application of the population balance equation to describe evolution of fractal aggregates is presented and effects of application of either uniform or erosion daughter distribution are compared.

Keywords:

• Nanoparticles
• mixing
• breakage
• clustering
• agglomerate dispersion
• QMOM
• population balance

This study was carried out within the project PROFORM (Transforming Nano‐particles into Sustainable Consumer Products Through Advanced Product and Process Formulation” EC Reference NMP4‐CT‐2004‐505645), which was partially funded by the 6th Framework Programme of EC. The contents of this article reflects only the authors' view. The authors gratefully acknowledge the useful discussions held with other partners of the Consortium: BHR Group Limited; Karlsruhe University, Institute of Food Process Engineering; Bayer Technology Services GmbH; University of Loughborough; Unilever UK Central Resources Limited; Birmingham University School of Engineering; Poznan University of Technology, Institute of Chemical Technology and Engineering; Rockfield Software Limited; C3M d.o.o. Ljubljana.

Notes

Part of the 1st International Conference on Industrial Processes for Nano and Micro Products, London, 2007.