Since dl the cycles in the process must be opened, and since where unit 1 has all its inputs

nputs tom. One application of the Re-

the number of streams in a decomposition is finite, such a pro- placement Rule would replace these inputs by the outputs of
cedure must terminate and lead to a nonredundant family. unit 1. Call t h i s decomposition {Dz).Once again, there exists
Theorem 4: A family of decompositions contains at least u a unit with all inputs torn. Call it unit 2. This process of re-
decompositions, where u is the number of units in the looped placementand ranumbering of can be continued for at
process system. least u units. Therefore, there must be at least u decompositions
Proof: A rocess flow graph for a recycle system is a con- in any decomposition family.
nected grapi, that is, there exists a directed path from any
vertex to any other vertex. Consider a decomposition {Dl} Manuscript receiued August 2 and accepted September 13, 1974.

Some Fundamental Aspects of Spray Drying

Equations are proposed to predict the three-dimensional motion of
droplets in a spray dryer, based on a knowledge of the characteristics of the
atomizing device and of the gas flow patterns in the drying chamber. If the
droplet size distribution produced by the atomizing device is known or can
be assumed, the trajectories of the droplets can be calculated throughout
the drying process and hence the evaporative capacity and thermal efficiency
of the spray dryer can be predicted. S. KATTA and W. H. GAUVIN
Experimental verification of this theoretical approach was obtained Department of Chemical Engineering
from a study of the drying of calcium lignosulfonate solutions of various McGill University
concentrations in a 122-cm diam. )( 183-cm high laboratory circular con- Montreal, Quebec, Canada
current chamber with a conical bottom where the drying air was introduced
tangentially near the t o p
An experimental study of the effects of a number of operating variables
on the capacity and the efficiency of the spray dryer was also carried out.
These effects were interpreted in terms of the droplet trajectories obtained
in each case.

SCOPE
Among the many drying methods available, spray dry- they begin to be freely entrained by the drying gas) and
ing has gained a unique and important position in indus- in the free-entrainment zone (where the droplets are
trial applications where low particle temperatures and freely conveyed by the drying gas) of an experimental
short residence times are specially advantageous, such as spray dryer, using solutions of calcium lignosulfonate
in the drying of foods, drugs, and temperature-sensitive (trade-mark LIGNOSOL) as the model material. Predic-
materials in general. Prediction of droplet trajectories tions of drop size distribution (DSD) and of the size of
and residence times is essential for the sound design and the largest droplet generated by the nozzle were also
efficient operation of spray dryers. Such knowledge can developed, as this knowledge is vital for the calculation
also be applied in the design of a number of other equip- of the trajectories. The three-dimensional equations of
ment involving the contacting of a dispersed phase of motion of the droplets, along with the equations for
droplets or particles with a conveying gas, such as spray particulate heat transfer, for the mass transfer of water
coolers, gas scrubbers and absorbers, cyclone evaporators, vapor and for the changes in the properties of the drying
pneumatic transport reactors, and combustion devices gas were solved numerically and simultaneously on a
involving fuel sprays. Many attempts were made in the computer.
past to predict droplet trajectories in spray dryers, but To test these theoretical predictions, the effect of a
these were based on unrealistic or oversimplified models, number of operating variables such as the temperature
which failed to take into account the many complex inter- and flow rate of the drying gas, the position of the atom-
izing nozzle in the chamber, and the concentration of
dependencies between the transport phenomena occumng the feed on the evaporative capacity and the thermal
during the drying process and thus generally resulted in efficiency of the spray-drying chamber have been studied
poor agreement between theoretical predictions and the experimentally. These experimental results were inter-
actual performance of the system. preted in terms of the dronlet trajectories obtained under
The objective of the present study was to predict the the various operating condihons used.
trajectories of droplets both in the nozzle zone (the region In an earlier paper, Gauvin et al. (1974) predicted
traversed by the rapidly-decelerating droplets between droplet trajectories for the evaporation of water sprays
the exit of the atomizing device and the point at which in the same equipment as was used in the present study.

AlChE Journal (Vol. 21, No. 1) January, 1975 Page 143

Good agreement was obtained between the theory and the solutions in the study reported here, as the presence of
experimental results. This prior investigation was ex- dissolved solids significantly alters the process of evapora-
tended to the spray drying of calcium lignosulfonate tion from pure liquids.

CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE

The study has clearly established that it is possible to of the chamber. It can be inferred from the work of
calculate, on a completely theoretical basis, the momen- Schowalter and Johnstone (1960) that when the nozzle is
tum, heat, and mass transfer to droplets in both the close to the roof of the chamber, the droplet enters the
nozzle zone and the free-entrainment zone of a spray- entrainment zone of its motion in a region of high vertical
drying chamber, as above defined. It has also been shown velocity due to the pronounced downward pitch of the
that the prediction of the initial drop size distribution Row and is rapidly conveyed towards the wall. On the
and of the largest droplet size can be made with reason- other hand, when the nozzle is situated below the optimum
able accuracy solely on theoretical considerations. position, although the smaller pitch of the Row in the
Calculations of the droplet path in both zones are in lower part of the cone is favorable, the narrowing diameter
reasonable agreement with the experimental observations. of the chamber and the increased tangential velocity
For two different sets of operating conditions, both carried decrease the droplet’s residence time. As the concentra-
out at the corresponding maximum evaporative capacity tion of the feed is raised, the diameter of the largest
of the chamber, calculations showed that the largest droplet increases which in turn increases its initial mo-
droplet should become almost dry by the time it reached mentum and the required drying time. This, by virtue of
the wall of the chamber, while for a slightly larger feed the mechanism discussed above, necessitates a progres-
rate or a slightly larger droplet, wet particles should sively lower position of the nozzle for maximum perform-
hit the wall, in agreement with the experimental evidence, ance.
thus establishing the validity of the method of prediction. A marked decrease in capacity with an increase in
The effects of the various operating parameters studied the concentration of the feed was observed. This is due
on the evaporative capacity and the thermal efficiency to the fact that the average droplet size and, hence, the
of the spray dryer were interpreted on the basis of the largest droplet size, increase with the feed concentration,
trajectories obtained. In general, capacity and efficiency as just explained. Finally, an optimum drying gas tem-
will increase as the heat and mass transfer rates to drop- perature for maximum capacity is shown to exist for
lets increase and as the droplet path becomes longer. In each of the concentrations studied.
addition, efficiency is strongly affected by heat losses. Any It is believed that the method of predicting the droplet
operating variable which affects the above factors will size distribution and the computational approach em-
correspondingly affect the spray-dryer capacity and effi- ployed in the present study can be extended to the spray
ciency. drying of other solutions, providing that the particles
The most significant of the effects studied is the influence of spray-dried product are not hollow. In the latter case,
exerted by the position of the atomizing nozzle. This experimental information on the characteristics of the
effect was magnified because of the relatively small size product must be obtained prior to the calculations.

PREVIOUS WORK to follow the droplets of differentsizes present in the spray.

Baltas and Gauvin (19f39a, b ) reviewed critically the In a second paper (1960b), the same authors reported a
work on transport phenomena in spray drying until 1967, study on the evaporation of water sprays and concluded
while Masters (1972) presented a more general review that droplets below about 40 pm diameter evaporated at
of the whole field. Gauvin et al. (1974) covered the most the same rate as single, stationary droplets evaporating in
recent published literature and reported their study on the still air. However, it was pointed out by Bose (1963) that
prediction of droplet trajectories for water sprays in the the relative motion between the droplets and the air stream
nozzle zone and in the free-entrainment zone in a cylindri- cannot be neglected if this relative motion is of significant
cal concurrent spray drying chamber with a conical bottom magnitude, as is generally the case for larger droplets.
in which the drying air was introduced tangentially near The experimental study of Manning and Gauvin (1960)
the top. The importance of the droplet trajectories and on heat and mass transfer rates to water sprays in the
their effect on the capacity and efficiency were also dis- nozzle zone is of particular significance since they mea-
cussed. This study was based on a more realistic model sured the droplet velocities near the nozzle and the tem-
than any attempted in the past. Recent and some past perature of the drying gas within the spray. Gluckert
( 1962) presented simplified equations for droplet trajec-
studies pertinent to the present paper will now be dis- tories, on the basis of which he proposed correlations for
cussed. the design of spray dryers. His study was based on the as-
Dlouhy and Gauvin (1960a) studied the spray drying sumption that droplets have the same velocity as that of
of calcium lignosulfonate solutions in a concurrent down- the drying gas, which is not valid in view of the large sizes
Bow spray dryer. Among the important observations re- (30 pm to 200 pm) generally encountered in spray drying.
ported were that no significant falling-rate period could be Baltas and Gauvin (196913) proposed an accurate but
noticed and that up to a concentration of about 20%, complex stepwise procedure to follow the evaporation and
calcium lignosulfonate solutions exhibited typical colloidal drying of a sodium nitrate spray in the free-entrainment
properties, while above that concentration a decrease in zone of a downward concurrent spray dryer. More recently,
vapor pressure took place. They predicted accurately the Janda (1973) developed a method to design spray dryers
drying time for the spray, employing a step-by-step method employing centrifugal disk atomizers on the basis of two-

Page 144 January, 1975

AlChE Journal (Vol. 21, No. 1)
dimensional trajectories of droplets in the dryer. His as-
sumption, that the droplets follow the gas near the wall of A'R7f
FEED
the chamber, is not justified. Parti and Palancz (1974)
presefited a mathematical model for spray drying with a
number of simplifying assumptions which make the model
somewhat unrealistic. Finally, a n extensive literature sur-
vey o n all aspects of spray drying was presented by
Mochida and Kinuta in 23 articles ( 1971-73).
The present study is reported in three sections, namely
( 1 ) drop size distribution, (2) trajectories of droplets, and
(3) spray-drying efficiency and capacity.

EXPERIMENT
Equipment
For the present investigation, solutions of calcium lignosul-
fonate (trade-mark LIGNOSOL) of 5, 7.5, and 10% concentra-

V1
tion by weight were used as feed. For each set of operating
conditions, the maximum evaporative capacity of the chamber
was determined according to the criterion that no incompletely
dried particle should hit the walls of the chamber. This could
be easily observed experimentally through the windows pro-
vided for that purpose since even slightly wet particles would
stick to the glass. The maximum capacity (above which sticky
particles would collect on the windows) was easily defined and
quite reproducible. Although more demanding, this criterion
was found to be experimentally preferable to its alternative,
namely, that no wet particles should be present in the exit gas. AIR
The equipment consisted briefly of a gas-heated furnace, fol-
lowed by a blower, to provide the drying air; the spray-drying 0
chamber, a concurrent downflow type with tangential air entry; PRODUCT
a pneumatic nozzle assembly and a multicone-type cyclone col- Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of spray dryer.
lector. The chamber was constructed of 0.015-em thick gal-
vanized steel and consisted of a 1.22-m I.D. x 0.61-m high
upper jacketed cylindrical section and a 1.22-m high lower
conical section.
The hot air from the blower was introduced tangentially into
a 5.08-cm wide annular jacket surrounding the cylindrical sec-
585
d,, = -
(-; + 597 (-)'"' ( 1000
)0'5 Qi )'.5

tion and then distributed to the chamber through six slots (3.81- Vrel Qa
cm x 15.2-an) cut in the inside wall at an angle of 45". The
metal was not cut out, but merely bent back along a 90-degree
edge to produce a fairly tight spiral flow. The entire chamber The above equation was verified by several experimenters.
and entering ducts were coated internally with a high-tempera- Nukiyama and Tanasawa presented a second empirical
ture aluminum paint and heavily insulated with 'Tartan' cement. equation to express the size distribution as follows:
Greater details were provided in the earlier paper (Gauvin
et al., 1974). %/Ad = a di2 exp ( - bdiq) (2)
An internal-mixing pneumatic nozzle ( Spraying Systems Co. Lewis et al. (1948) showed that q is a constant for a
type 22-B, orifice diameter = 0.356 em) was used exclusively.
The pressure of the atomizing air was precisely controlled by given nozzle over a wide range of operating conditions and
a needle valvc and its flow rate was measured by an orifice. The must be determined experimentally.
nozzle position could be adjusted at any desired level in the Kim and Marshall (1971) proposed correlations for ob-
chamber. A schematic diagram of the spray dryer is given in taining a n average droplet size and size distribution from
Figure 1. A sketch of the above nozzle was given by Masters a n experimental study, employing a novel technique of
(1972). spraying a molten wax and melts of wax-polyethylene mix-
tures. It is not clear from the literature how these correla-
Procedure
tions compare with those of Nukiyama and Tanasawa.
The maximum capacity of the chamber at steady state, for The controlling influence of the largest droplet in many
given operating conditions, was determined by gradually in- spray-drying operations is quite apparent. Mugele and
creasing the feed rate until the particles of calcium lignosul-
fonate started to adhere to the observation windows, located in Evans (1951) proposed a method which utilizes a special
the conical section. As the chamber was flushed out after each upper-limit function to obtain the size of the largest drop-
set of runs, wet particles of solids adhering to the windows let. This method will be explained in detail later. Gwyn
could easily be detected. Dry particles, on the other hand, did et a]. (1965), from particle-size analysis by the count
not adhere at all, but were carried out by the gas stream. All method, found that the largest observed size fell in the
the temperatures, pressures, and flow rates were recorded when vicinity of the 0.9986 level within the cumulative distri-
the maximum capacity was reached. bution of the parent population.
The experimental data obtained on drop size distribution
DROP SIZE DISTRIBUTION with water as the feed will now be treated in order to
determine the characteristics of the atomizing nozzle used
The important characteristics of a spray are the average in this study. A plot of log [ n i / ( d 2A d ) ] vs. d?, as shown
droplet diameter, the droplet size distribution and the larg- in Figure 2, yielded a straight line showing that the value
est droplet size. These will now be discussed in turn. Nuki- of q in Equation ( 2 ) is 2. Hence, the equation to represent
yama and Tanasawa (1938) presented the following em- the drop size distribution for the atomizing nozzle em-
pirical correlation to predict t h e average droplet size in the ployed in this study is
case of pneumatic atomization from an extensive experi-
mental study: ni/Ad = adi2 exp ( - bdi2) (3)
AlChE Journal (Vol. 21, No. 1) January, 1975 Page 145
 data, that the ratio of &/dvs varies from 1.8 to 3.0 de-
pending on the operating conditions.

TRAJECTORIES OF DROPLETS
Prediction of droplet trajectories requires the solution of
a set of simultaneous equations to express (1) the three-
dimensional motion of the droplets; ( 2 ) their instantaneous
evaporation rate; ( 3 ) the three-dimensional flow pattern of
the drying gas, and ( 4 ) the instantaneous properties of
the latter. These will now be treated in turn.
The equation of motion of a droplet in centrifugal and
gravitational fields can be expressed as
dVf/dt = g + rw2 + VtV,/r - C~Vf2p,A,/2m+ FL/m
(6)
Resolving this equation in the three dimensions, the drop-
let velocities can be written as follows:
dVt/dt = - VtVr/T - 3cDpa Vf (Vt - v a t ) /4& (7)
,f (Vr - var)
dVr/dt = Vt2/r - 3 C ~ p v /44p + FL/m
(8)
dVJdt = g - 3cDpa V f (Vu - Vav)/4d$ (9)
where V f , the velocity of the droplet relative to the fluid,
is given by
V f z= (Vt - Vat)2 + (Vu - Vau)' + (Vr - Var)'
(10)

0 400 800 1200 1600 2000

SQUAREOF DROPLET DIAMETER, ,LL m2
Fig. 2. Experimental drop size distribution for water.

where a and b are constants which depend upon the oper-

ating conditions. From a mathematical analysis, Nukiyama
and Tanasawa obtained the following relations:
b = 2.25/dVs2 (4)
a = 1.91 b3V (5)
where V = total volume of the sample, cubic microns.
The value of d,, obtained experimentally agreed reasonably
3
well with that predicted from the Nukiyama-Tanasawa CUMULATIM FREQUENCY
equation. Following the method of Mugele and Evans, the
Fig. 3. Prediction of maximum droplet size for water.
above DSD for water was treated to obtain the probable
upper limit size, dm. A value of d, is found that gives the
best fit when log [ d i / ( & - d i ) ] is plotted against the
cumulative number frequency on a probability grid, as
shown in Figure 3, by a trial and error procedure. The
experimental value of dm, in this case, is in the range of 62
to 65 pm, which is in excellent agreement with that ob- 0.8-

tained by the above method.

0.4-
For the calcium lignosulfonate solutions employed in the
present study, Equation (1) was used to predict dus and r,
72
I 0-
Equations ( 3 ) , ( 4 ) , and ( 5 ) were used to estimate the E
01
droplet size distribution. The size of the largest droplet was 9 -04-
determined by the upper-limit analysis outlined above, and v
-
found to be 95 pm, as shown in Figure 4. -08-
It should be mentioned that very recently Licht (1974)
analyzed the data obtained by Kim and Marshall (1971) -I zt
on pneumatic atomizers using the upper-limit function. He
found that the maximum drop size would be close to 3.0 -1fiL
1 I I l l I I I I l I t
times the mass-median size. Kim and Marshall showed that 001 01 I 5 10 20 40 60 80 90 95 98 99
CUMULATIVE FREQUENCY
the Sauter mean diameter would be equal to 0.83 times
the mass-median diameter. However, the experimental Fig. 4. Prediction of maximum droplet size for 10% calcium lignosul-
work of Miyasaka (1959) indicates, from very scattered fonate solution.

Page 146 Januory, 1975 AlChE Journal (Vol. 21, NO. 1)

The drag coefficient was evaluated by means of the equa-
tions proposed by Beard and Pruppacher (1969) for dif- concentration
ferent ranges of Re, which are generally considered to be
0.16 0 - 20%
the most reliable of the equations available in the litera-
ture.
The shear lift force on the droplets was estimated from
the following equation presented by Saffman (1965) for
the motion of a sphere in an unbounded shear flow:
FL = 2O.25padiz ( v J K ) 0.5 KV, (11)
where K is the curl of the fluid velocity, which can be
shown to be equivalent to
K = 1.4 Vau(r/r52) (12)
when the axial jet velocities are estimated from the follow-
ing equation (Pai, 1954) :
Vau= V, * exp [ - 0.692 ( r/rs2)] (13)
The shear lift force was assumed to be negligible when the
droplet Fk was greater than one. The lift force due to spin
was estimated to be negligible in the present study. A
fuller treatment of this section is given in the paper by
Gauvin et al. ( 1974).
diabatic humidification
curves
Droplet Evaporation Rate
The droplet evaporation rate is given by
0.00I I I I
dmi/dti = ah42w (t,,- t s )/A (14) 300 310 320 330

where the heat transfer coefficient h was determined from TEMPERATURE, K

the following correlation proposed by Ranz and Marshall Fig. 5. Saturation humidities of calcium lignosulfonate solutions.
(1952) :
Nu = 2.0 + 0.6 (Re)0.5(Pr)0.33 (15)
were used in the computations.
The instantaneous diameter of any droplet was determined In the entrainment zone, the measured tangential air
from the following equation: velocities, as reported by Gauvin et al. (1974), show that
4 = din [pin/Ci * (16) the vortex flow consists of a central zone and an annular
zone near the wall, in which Vat varies according to the
where the subscripts i and in represent the instantaneous two following equations, respectively:
values and the initial values, respectively, of the same
droplet class. Vat= Clr (20)
The temperature of the droplet at any particular concen- = C2 ( R - r )
Vat (21)
tration was determined from the psychrometric chart
shown in Figure 5 which was obtained by Dlouhy and where C1 is a function of the axial distance from the nozzle
Gauvin ( 1960). and C2 remains constant. Vertical velocities were calculated
on the assumption that they remained constant along a
horizontal plane.
Gos Flow Patterns
Properties of Drying Gas
Among the main difficulties encountered in the design of
spray dryers is the lack of accurate information on the flow The temperature of air ta at a position z in the nozzle
patterns prevailing in the spray-drying chamber. In the zone was estimated from an energy balance in this zone
present study, the flow in the chamber was very complex which yields the following equation:
and due to lack of information on the interaction of a (ta- t,) = {Me(0.24 + 0.45 Hi)( t a l - tw)
vortex flow on a jet, the flow was assumed as a superposi- + W,(tf - t w ) - + M o ) (Hz- H1)AwI}/
[(Me
[(Me+ (0.24 + 0.45 Hz)] (22)
tion of the jet of atomizing fluid and the surrounding cen- Mo)
trifugal field of the drying air.
The centerline velocities of the jet were computed from The heat losses were neglected in the above equation. H ,
the equations of Gal (1970) given below: was estimated from the equation

V J V , = 6.5/; (17) Hz = Ez/ ( M e + M o ) + HI(23)

where - It was assumed that no radial temperature gradients ex-
x = ( ~ ~ / p(doo)
~ ) ~ . ~ (18) isted. This seems reasonable in view of the fact that mix-
ing of the drying gas with the atomizing fluid was quite in-
The radial distribution of axial velocities was assumed to
tense. Further, the complexity of the flow prevents any
follow Equation (13) given earlier. The velocity half-
reasonable estimation of the temperature gradients present
radius was chosen to follow the following equation after
in the dryer. The rate of entrainment at any section of the
examining the results reported in the literature:
jet was estimated from the following equation proposed by
r5 = 0.09 x (19) Davies ( 1972) :
The radial velocities reported by Albertson et al. (1950) M e = M o C0.23 (./Do)- 11 (24)

AlChE Journal (Vol. 21, No. 1) January, 1975 Page 147

 In the free-entrainment zone, the temperature of the air In the nozzle zone which extended a distance of about
at any position z in the path of the droplets was obtained 76 cm below the nozzle, most of the evaporation and hence
from an overall energy balance which yielded the following most of the change in air temperature took place. The tem-
equation: perature of drying air and the solid concentration of 80
and 95 pm droplets as a function of the axial distance and
time, respectively, are shown in Figure 6. The effect of the
lift force is also shown in the same figure. The change in
the diameter of three classes of droplets with time is shown
Heat losses were assumed to be proportional to the evap- in Figure 7. It can easily be seen that a small increase in
oration which had occurred up to point z. The viscosity
diameter requires an appreciably longer residence time for
and thermal conductivity of air were determined from the complete drying.
equations reported by Hilsenrath et al. (1955). The calculations on the largest droplet indicated that it
M e t h o d of Calculations reached about 97% concentration when it hit the wall of
the chamber. This is in good agreement with the experi-
As mentioned earlier, the experimental criterion used in mental observation. The axial, tangential, and radial veloc-
this work for determining the maximum capacity of the ity components of this dropkt are shown in Figure 8. The
spray drying chamber for a given set of operating condi- decrease of V, and V, of the droplet in the nozzle zone is
tions was based on the requirement that no wet droplet
should impinge on the wall. Whether the theoretical model

il
agrees with the experimental observation for a given set of
operating conditions can now be ascertained from a nu- AXIAL DISTANCE FROM NOZZLE, CM
merical solution of the equations of motion for the various 2: 4: 6; 8: 19" 12\450

classes of droplets simultaneously with the other equations

developed earlier.
The computations were carried out on an IBM 360/75
computer. Since all the equations have to be solved simul-
taneously, a variable time increment depending on the size
of the droplet was chosen so that all the droplets would
advance to the same plane perpendicular to the axis of the
chamber. In other words, at any instant, the same distance
step was used for all classes of droplets, which was fixed
by the velocity of the smallest droplet whose trajectory was
being computed. In order to prevent the computations
from becoming excessive, the droplets of three smaller sizes
were assumed to follow the gas. This is justified in view of
the experimental evidence of Dlouhy and Gauvin (1960b).
The largest time increment used was second initially
and second for most of the calculations.

RESULTS
I I I I I I I
For the purpose of illustration, the results of calculations 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
carried out for a specific set of operating conditions are TIME, seconds
presented here. The operating conditions for this experi- Fig. 6. Variation of droplet concentration and temperature of drying
mental run were as given below: air.

Mass flow rate of drying air, Wc = 354 kg/hr.

Temperature of inlet drying air, tl = 458 K
Humidity of inlet drying air, H1 = 0.0356
Feed temperature, tf = 284 K
Feed concentration by wt. = 10%
Mass flow rate of atomizing air, WA = 27 kg/hr.
Nozzle position below roof = 31.43 cm
Heat losses = 1764 J/s
The maximum evaporative capacity, under these experi-
mental conditions, was experimentally determined to be
4.32 kg/hr. of water.
The initial conditions selected for the calculations cor-
responded to a plane located at 3.8 cm from the nozzle
exit, at which position Manning and Gauvin (1960) mea-
sured velocities of droplets issuing from an identical nozzle.
Since the relative locations of the droplets of different sizes
were unknown, it was assumed that they were distributed
evenly according to the size so that the largest size was
at the edge of the spray and the smallest at a distance of
one-eighth of the radius of the spray from its centerline.
The temperature of the air within the spray was estimated 0 0. I 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
from the rate of entrainment of surrounding gas into the
jet. The droplet size distribution for these calculations was TIME, seconds
given earlier. Fig. 7. Variation of droplet diameter with time.

Page 148 January, 1975 AlChE Journal (Vol. 21, No. 1)

due to the rapid deceleration of the droplet. The increase
in V,, in the latter part of the trajectory and also in V, is
due to the converging flow field in the conical section of the
chamber. The decrease in Vt near the wall is due to the
presence of an annular region where the gas tangential
velocity decreases steeply towards the wall. The radial
component, however, remains constant in the free-entrain-
ment zone.
The axial and radial positions of droplets of two sizes
as a function of time are shown in Figure 9. The change
in angular position of 95 and 80 pm droplets with time
is shown in Figure 10. A substantial difference between
the two sizes existed in the final angular position.

SPRAY D R Y I N G C A P A C I T Y AND EFFICIENCY

A study of the effects of a number of operating parame-

ters such as the temperature of the feed, the flow rate, and
the temperature of the drying gas, the pressure of the
atomizing air and the nozzle depth on the capacity and
thermal efficiency of a spray-drying chamber when water 1 I I 1 I lo
0.I 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
was the feed, was presented in an earlier paper (Gauvin
et al., 1974). In the present study, the effects of the feed TIME, seconds
concentration, of the temperature of the drying gas and Fig. 9. Variation of droplet position with time.
of the nozzle depth on the capacity and efficiency, where
calcium lignosulfonate solutions were the feed, have been
studied in detail.
The efficiency in the present study was defined as the
ratio of heat used in vaporization to the total heat avail-
able and can be shown to be equivalent to the following
expression:
7 = W ~ / [ W G(ti - ~ W ) C Si- - t w ) ] (26)
I WL($
It is believed that this definition, if generally adopted by
workers in the field, would facilitate comparison of cham-
ber performance.
Effect o f Nozzle Position*

The effect of nozzle position on the capacity and effi-

ciency of the spray dryer for different flow rates of drying 90'

In /I \ A lzoo
- 160
v)
Fig.
00
10. Variation of angular position of droplet with time,

- 120
gas (but at constant inlet temperature of
the case of 10% calcium lignosulfonate solution, is shown
-
420 K), in

in Figuie 11. The dramatic effect of the nozzle position on

both capacity and efficiency and the existence of an opti-
- 80 mum position is clearly shown in this figure. Further, this
optimum position is independent of the flow rate of the
drying gas. This is to be expected in view of the finding of
- 40 Schowalter and Johnstone (1960) that the flow pattern of
swirling flow is not affected by the volumetric flow rate.
An explanation for the effect of the nozzle position has
90L I I I 1 I lo already been provided in the conclusions. At maximum
0 01 02 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 capacity, the efficiency is also maximum; but at the opti-
TIME, SECONDS mum nozzle depth, the maximal values in both capacity
Fig. 8. Axial, tangential, and radial components of droplet velocity and efficiency do not occur at the same flow rate. The same
as a function of time. trends were observed for other solution concentrations.
Effect of Drying Gas Temperature
The effect of the temperature of the drying gas was in-
Detailed tables of results have been deposited as Document No. 02532
0 vestigated with the nozzle depth and gas mass flow rate
with the National Auxiliary Publications Service (NAPS), c/o Microfiche constant at their optimum values for the different concen-
Publications. 305 E. 46th Street, New York, N.Y. 10017, and may b e
obtained for $1.50 for microfiche or $2.00 for photocopies. trations used. As the inlet gas temperature increases, its

AlChE Journal (Vol. 21, No. 1) January, 1975 Page 149

 70

60

A 5.9 M ~ M I N 50
0 7.4 "
0 8.7 "

o\" 40
i
0
z
w
0 30
LL
LL
W

20

10

0
400 450 500 550
24 28 32 36 TEMPERATURE OF DRYING GAS, K
NOZZLE DEPTH, CM Fig. 13. Effect of temperature of drying air on efficiency for different
Fig. 11. Effect of nozzle position on evaporative capacity and effici- concentrations of calcium lignosulfonate solutions a t optimum
ency for different flow rates of drying air (constant temperarure of nozzle position and volumetric flow rate.
490 K) for 10% solution.

uolurnetric flow rate of course increases proportionately.

Figures 12 and 13 summarize the effects on the capacity
and the efficiency of the chamber.
In the case of calcium lignosulfonate solutions, the ca-
25 pacity first increases and then decreases sharply, demon-
strating the existence of an optimum gas temperature for
all the concentrations studied. As the inlet air temperature
increases, both the heat transfer to the droplets and the
latter's velocity increase. The former effect predominates
20 until the optimum temperature is reached while the latter
becomes the controlling factor beyond this temperature due
to the shorter droplet path.
In the case of water as feed, the capacity of the cham-
ber is much larger, primarily because the water droplets
u 15 8 0% (d,, = 26 pm, & = 65 pm) are much smaller than the
I
\ 5% droplets of calcium lignosulfonate solution (d", = 50 pm,
0 d, = 95 pm), and also because there is no diffusional
Y
>
.. resistance due to drying. The chamber capacity appears
k to increase steadily with the temperature, but wiII eventu-
0 10 ally level off and/or decrease at still higher gas tempera-
2 tures.
4 The efficiency decreases with increase in the drying gas
temperature due to poorer utilization of heat contained in
the inlet drying gas and to the higher heat losses.
5
Effect of Feed Concentration
The effect of the feed concentration on the capacity and
the efficiency of the chamber, and also on the optimum
nozz!e depth and on the product yield, is shown in Figures
0 14 and 15. The drying gas temperature and flow rate were
maintained constant in this series of runs. The dramatic
TEMPERATURE OF DRYING GAS, K decrease of the capacity with an increase in concentration
Fig. 12. Effect of temperature of drying air on evaporative capocity can be explained as due to the increase in d,, and hence
for different concentrations of calcium lignosulfonate solutions at the size of the largest droplet, and also due to the slower
optimum nozzle position and volumetric flow rates. rate of drying. The efficiencies of various runs were plotted

Page 150 January, 1975 AlChE Journal (Vol. 21, NO. 1)

against concentration in the same figure. The curve closely weaknesses. The first is that the entrance arrangement for
follows that of capacity vs. concentration because the only the drying air was poorly designed. By cutting the en-
variable in the expression for efficiency is the rate of evap- trance slots at a 45" angle, the spiral of drying air was
oration of water. flung sharply downward towards the conical section. As a
Of even greater importance, from a practical point of result, the upper section of the chamber was made largely
view, is the yield of dried powder per unit time. As shown ineffective from the point of view of droplet evaporation.
in Figure 15, the product yield increases with the concen- As a consequence, the overall evaporative capacity of the
tration. Additional observations, which have not been re- chamber was unduly low, and the contribution of the noz-
ported here, indicate an optimum at a concentration of zle zone to the total evaporation unduly high. It also exag-
15%. gerated the importance of the nozzle position. The latter
The remarkable effect of the solution concentration on result may not have been entirely bad, however, since it
the optimum nozzle depth is shown in Figure 15. certainly emphasized-more than any other observed ef-
fect-the importance of the droplet trajectory in the evap-
GENERAL COMMENTS oratioddrying process.
The second weakness is the paucity of experimental in-
From a practical point of view, it must be admitted that formation on the flow pattern of the drying air and on its
the experimental part of this work suffered from two major three-dimensional velocity distribution. The measured
tangential air velocities reported by Gauvin et al. (1974)
were not sufficient to provide the detailed information
required, thus necessitating a number of assumptions, as
explained in the pertinent section of the analysis. That
these assumptions were reasonable seems to be shown from
the good agreement between analytical and experimental
- 60 findings. To remove any uncertainty, however, a detailed
study of gas flow patterns, velocity distribution, and tur-
bulence characteristics in a chamber identical to that used
-50 in the present work is currently under way in this labora-
tory.
.\" One remaining point should be mentioned. In all the
runs reported here, it was ascertained that the product
-40 $ consisted of dense, roughly spherical particles only. Data
w from runs yielding hollow spheres were discarded, as they
0
LL
LL invariably resulted in inordinately low chamber capacities.
-30 w It is probable that hollow particles could also be handled
by the technique outlined in this paper, providing enough
information is available on the size, size distribution, and
apparent density of the product.
Finally, it appears reasonable to conclude that the com-
putational approach used in this study should hold equally
Oi 1 I 110 well in the case of industrial-size spray-drying chambers,
4 0 12 as well as in the case of other feed solutions.
CONCENTRATION,WT Yo
Fig. 14. Effect of concentration of calcium lignosulfonate solutions
on evaporative capacity. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study is based on the experimental data of D. B. Lyons
(M.Eng. thesis, McGill University, 1951) and on additional
data of F. H. Knelman (M.Eng. thesis, McGill University,
1950). Financial assistance from the National Research Council
of Canada is gratefully acknowledged.

I
V "t P 1'"
- 0.8 g
\
NOTATION
a, b = parameters in Equation (2)
(3
Y C1, C2 = constants
-0.6 9F Ap = projected area of droplet on a plane normal to
mean flow, m2
C = droplet concentration, %
L CD = drag coefficient
-0.4 2
0 C p = heat capacity, J/kg*K
Q
a Csl, Cs2= heat capacity of inlet and outlet humid air, J/
kg*K
- 0.2 d, = diameter of largest droplet, pm
di = diameter of each class of droplets, pm
Do = diameter of nozzle, cm
d,, = mean Sauter diameter, Y~i&~/3/tnidi~, pm
0 4 8 12 E = rate of evaporation, kg/hr
CONCENTRATION, WT O/o FL = lift force, N
Fig. 15. Effect of concentration of calcium lignosulfonate solutions g = acceleration due to gravity, m/s2
on optimum nozzle position and product yield. h = heat transfer coefficient, J/m2*s-K
AlChE Journal (Vol. 21, No. 1) January, 1975 Page 151
HI, Hz = absolute humidities of entering and leaving air, in = at initial conditions
respectively, gm of water vapor/gm of dry air o = at nozzle exit
ka = thermal conductivity of air, J/m*s*K x = at a vertical distance x below the nozzle
K = curl of fluid velocity, s-l w = a t wet bulb temperature of the air
m = mass of droplet, kg z = a t a position z along the droplet path
Me = mass flow rate of entrainment, kg/hr.
M, = mass flow rate of atomizing air, kg/hr. LITERATURE CITED
ni = number of each class of droplets Albertson, M. L., Y. B. Dai, R. A. Jenson, and H. Rouse, “Diffu-
q = rate of heat transfer to droplets, J/s; constant in sion of Submerged Jets,” ASCE Trans., 115, 639 ( 1950).
Equation (2) Baltas, L., and W. H. Gauvin, “Performance Predictions for a
q L = rate of heat losses from spray chamber, J/s Concurrent Spray Dryer,” AIChE J., 15, 764 (1969a).
Q1 = volumetric flow rate of liquid, m3/hr. ., “Transport Characteristics of a Concurrent
Qa = volumetric flow rate of atomizing air, m3/hr. Spray Dryer,” ibid., 772 ( 1969b).
T = radial position of droplet, cm Bose, A. K., “Evaporation Rates in Spray Drying,” M.A.Sc.
R = radius of chamber at any height, cm thesis, Univ. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada ( 1963).
= velocity half-radius, cm (the radial distance where Beard, K. V., and H. R. Pruppacher, “A Determination of the
r5 Terminal Velocity and Drag of Small Water Drops by Means
the centerline velocity becomes half) of a Wind Tunnel,” J. Atm. Sci., 26, 1066 (1969).
t = time, s Davies, J. T., Turbulence Phenomena, pp. 98, 99, Academic
ta = tem erature of drying air, K Press, New York (1972).
tf
td
B
= fee temperature, K
= datum temperature, K
Dlouhy, J., and W. H. Gauvin, “Evaporation Rates in Spray
Drying,” Can. I. Chem. Eng., 38, 113 (1960a).
tw = wet bulb temperature of drying air, K ., “Heat and Mass Transfer in Spray Drying,”
ts = droplet temperature, K AIChE I., 6,29 ( 1960b).
Gal, G., “Self-Preservation in Fully Expanded Turbulent Co-
V = volume of feed sample, pm3 flowing Jets,” AlAA J . , 8,814 ( 1970).
V a t , V a , Vau = absolute values of tangential, radial and Gauvin, W. H., S. Katta, and F. H. Knelman, “Drop Trajectory
axial velocities of air, respectively, m/s Predictions and Their Importance in the Design of Spray
V , = velocity of air on the centerline of atomizing jet, Dryers,” Intern. J . Multi-Phase Flow ( 1974, in press).
m/s Gluckert, F. A., “A Theoretical Correlation of Spray Dryer Per-
V f = resultant velocity of droplet relative to fluid, m/s formance,’’ AIChE J., 8,460 ( 1962).
V,, = velocity of air at nozzle exit, m/s Gwyn, J. E., E. J. Crosby, and W. R. Marshall, Jr., “Bias in
V t , V , Vu = absolute values of tangential, radial and axial Particle-Size Analysis by the Count Method,” Ind. Eng.
velocities of droplet, respectively, m/s Chem. Fundamentals, 4, 204 ( 1965).
Hilsenrath, J., C. W. Beckett, W. S. Benedict, L. Fano, H. J.
V,,. = relative velocity between the air stream and the Hoge, J. F. Masi, R. L. Nuttal, Y. S. Touloukian, and H. W.
liquid stream, m/s Woolley, “Tables of Thermal Properties of Gases,” Nat. Bur.
Wa = atomizing air flow rate, kg/hr Standards Circ. No. 564 ( 1955).
WG = flow rate of drying air; (free air, measured a t Janda, F., “Calculation of the Dimension of Disc Spray Dryers
294 K and one atmosphere), kg of drying air/hr. with Intensive Circulation of the Drying Medium,” Intern.
WL = flow rate of feed, kg/hr. Chem. Eng., 13,649 ( 1973).
-Ww = chamber capacity, in kg of water evaporated/hr. Kim, K. Y., and W. R. Marshall, Jr., “Drop Size Distributions
from Pneumatic Atomizers,” AIChE I., 17, 575 (1971).
x = dimensionless distance, defined by Equation (18) Lewis, H. C., D. G. Edwards, M. J. Goglia, R. I. Rice, and
x = vertical distance from nozzle, cm L. W. Smith, “Atomization of Liquids in High Velocity Gas
z = position along droplet path Streams,” Ind. Eng. Chem., 40, 67 ( 1948).
Licht, W., “Maximum Drop Size Produced by Pneumatic Atom-
Greek Letters ization,’’ AIChE ]., 20,595 ( 1974).
A = increment Manning, W. P., and W. H. Gauvin, “Heat and Mass Transfer
Ad = the spread of the droplet size distribution to Decelerating Finely Atomized Sprays,” ibid., 6, 184
7 = drying thermal efficiency, defined by Equation (1960).
~ ~ . _ .

(26) Masters, K., Spray D’ryrying, Leonard Hill Books, London, Eng-
e = angular position of droplet, radians land f 1972).
= latent heat of vaporization a t t d , J/kg Miyasaka, Y.,’ Kikaigakkai Ronbunshu (1. Mech. Eng. Japan),
Ad
15, (51), pp. 34-38 (1959).
A, = latent heat of vaporization at tw,J/kg Mochida, T., and Y. Kinuta, “Spray Drying,” Jap. J. Chem.
pa = viscosity of air, N.s/m2 Eng. (1971-1973).
p = viscosity of liquid, poises Mugele, R. A., and H. D. Evans, “Droplet Size Distribution in
ua = kinematic viscosity of air, m2/s Sprays,” Ind. Eng. Chem., 43, 1317 ( 1951).
pQ = density of air, kg/m3 Nukiyama, S., and Y. Tanasawa, “‘An Experiment on the Atom-
pa = density of the surroundings of the jet, kg/m3 ization of Liquid,” Trans. SOC.Mech. Engrs. (Japan), 4, 86,
p = density of droplet, kg/m3 138 ( 1938); 5, 63, 68 ( 1939); 11-7 and 11-8 ( 1940).
u = surface tension of liquid, dynes/cm Pai, S . , Fluid Dynamics of Jets, Van Nostrand, New York
w = angular velocity of droplet, rad/s (1954).
Parti, M., and B. Palancz, “Mathematical Model for Spray Dry-
ing,’’ Chem. Eng. Sci., 29, 355 (1974).
Dimensionless Groups
Ranz, W. E., and W. R. Marshall, Jr., “Evaporation from Drops,
Nu = Nusselt number, hdi/ka Part I,” Chem. Eng. Plrogr., 48, 141 (1952).
PT = Prandtl number, Cppo/ka ., ibid., Part 11, ibid., 48, 173 (1952).
Re = Reynolds number, d;Vfpa/pa Saffman, P. G., “‘The Lift on a Small Sphere in a Slow Shear
Flow,” J. Fluid Mech., 22, 385 ( 1965).
Subscripts Schowalter, W. R., and H. F. Johnstone, “Characteristics of the
1 = a t the inlet conditions of spray dryer Mean Flow Patterns and Structure of Turbulence in Spiral
2 = a t the outlet conditions of spray dryer Gas Streams,” AZChE J., 6,648 ( 1960).
a = of drying air Manuscript receiued August 26, 1974; revision received and accepted
d = at datum temperature October 23, 1974.

Page 152 January, 1975 AlChE Journal (Vol. 21, No. 1)