Shear Flow of Aggregated Nanosuspensions–Fundamentals and Model Formulation

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

Theoretical aspects of shear flows of aggregated nanosuspensions are presented and applied to formulate appropriate models. Technological context of this work is related to formulation of stable suspensions of nanoparticles of specific rheological properties by breaking‐up nanoparticle clusters in high shear devices. Accordingly the population balance modeling is applied with kinetics including effects of aggregation, breakage and restructuring of aggregates; effects of suspension rheology on the flow are included as well. Rheological model includes the effect of clustering of primary nanoparticles. Population balances are solved using QMOM that is linked to the CFD code. Results of numerical simulations are presented for laminar and turbulent flows.

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

Keywords:

• Shear flow
• nanosuspensions
• QMOM
• mixing
• 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 paper 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.