Estimation of the drying rate and moisture profiles in an industrial spray dryer by means of experimental investigations and a simulation study

A spray dryer simulation program is described. It is based on the known conservation laws and permits determination of temperature and moisture profiles and droplet trajectories inside spray dryers. An industrial spray dryer used in the manufacture of detergents serves as an example to demonstrate the applicability of the program; this approach required prior experimental determination of the flow field and an axial temperature profile. On the basis of a rough estimate of the drying rate in the spray dryer, good agreement was observed between experiment and simulation.