Powder Technology, Vol.115, No.1, 51-57, 2001
Modeling the droplet deposition behavior on a single particle in fluidized bed spray granulation process
Fluidized bed spray granulation is used to produce coarse granular solid particles by spraying liquids in the form of fine droplets on a fluidized particle followed by drying in a stream of fluidizing air. The quality and thickness of granulation or coating on the particle should be uniform. The physical mechanism towards layering and the influence of process parameters towards granulation are not yet fully understood. In this work, the granulation process was carried out on a single spherical particle. Experiments were conducted to study the influence of process parameters, drying conditions, impact velocities and physical properties of sprayed solutions on the kinetics of granulation and on the morphology of the end product; The theoretical modeling of the process was attempted, relating collision and adhesion of sprayed droplets with particle growth for 20% NaCl solution using correlation modeling and artificial neural network techniques. The present paper reports and compares the results obtained by the two types of modeling. The results are useful in understanding the growth kinetics in spray-coating process.
Keywords:coating;growth mechanism;fluidized bed;spray granulation;modeling;artificial neural networks