Agglomeration and Breakage in Fluid-Particle Systems - I

Coating, drying, flocculation, granulation, and milling are some important unit operations in which fluid-particle interactions play a major role. In fluid-particle systems, the attributes of particles can change due to various mechanisms including agglomeration, breakage, and growth-shrinkage. Agglomeration and breakage can be either desirable or unwanted depending on the engineering application at hand. For example, in fluid bed granulation, controlled agglomeration of fine particles is desirable, whereas attrition of granules formed is unwanted and should be minimized. In most applications, agglomeration and breakage mechanisms operate simultaneously and are greatly affected by the fluid-particle interactions. It is thus of fundamental importance to study these mechanisms in connection with the fluid-particle interactions. In this session, we will consider original research results from both academia and industry regarding the agglomeration and breakage phenomena in fluid-particle systems. The work can be computational and/or experimental in nature. Although the scope of the session is broad, research papers that combine population balance modeling with multi-phase flow models via computational fluid dynamics and/or discrete element simulations are especially welcome. In addition, experimental work that characterizes the fluid-particle interactions, that identifies the model parameters, or that yields valuable data for process models are equally welcome. Research on various tests, which allow the measurement of particle and agglomerate strength via fluid-particle interactions, will also be considered.