Coupled CFD-PBE Simulation of Nucleation in Fluidized Bed Spray Granulation

Abstract

Fluidized bed spray granulation is used to produce porous granular particles from suspensions, solutions, and melts. It is the general aim of our work to provide a physics-based simulation tool for this process. For this the process-relevant mechanisms such as droplet deposition, dust integration, and drying are implemented using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to generate growth kinetics of the granules and of the dust particles. The latter gives rise to the nucleation rate. This kinetics is applied to simulate the development of the particle size distribution of granules for a continuously operated fluidized bed spray granulation process using population balance equations of the granules.

Keywords:

• CFD
• DQMOM
• Fluidized bed
• Granulation
• Population balance

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors thank BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany, for providing financial and scientific support.