Spray drying, as a crucial operation in industrial production, converts solution to fine particle. The spray moiety directly affects the final particle morphology, size and distribution. Compared with the experimental method, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling is a powerful and convenient tool for simulating the spray process. Based on the verified CFD model, different materials of atomizer were simulated to investigate the effect on droplet size and distribution in this work. The modeling result proved that the droplet size and distribution were influenced by the resistance coefficient of materials, wherein the Reynolds number could change the effect of roughness along with the change of mass flow rate on spray process. The results in this work have implication for controlling droplet size through developing new spray nozzle with different materials or surface coating. (C) 2019 The chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.