This Faraday Partnership project has developed a new model of droplet drying that overcomes the numerical and conceptual limitations of established models. The model couples droplet properties such as moisture content, particle shape and particle density to a population balance of droplets and a model of turbulent flow. The continuous and discrete phase descriptions provide a comprehensive framework for describing drying droplets.

The process of spray drying is used for the production of foods, detergents and many other products and this work will provide a better understanding of the influence of process design on product properties.

Project staff and support

Christopher Handscomb (Postgraduate Faraday Associate, University of Cambridge)
Markus Kraft (Academic supervisor, University of Cambridge)
Andrew Bayly(Industrial supervisor, Procter and Gamble)
Melvin Brown (Technology Translator, Smith Institute)

This project is being carried out at the University of Cambridge, in conjunction with Procter and Gamble. It is supported by an EPSRC industrial CASE award, made available through the Faraday Partnership for Industrial Mathematics. Start date: October 2004; duration: 3 years.