Homework 3. Mixing, segregation.

Particle enlargement

Q1 Surface tension force

Calculate the pressure gradient Pin-Pext for water in a capillary of (1) 10–1, (2) 10–2 and (3)10-3 cm
diameter. How great is the capillary rise if Pext is 1 atm and T=20 oC. Assume contact angle is 0o and
surface tension of water is 72 mN/m.

Q2 Spray flux
Calculate the fraction or percentage of nuclei formed from one drop, two drop an three drops, etc. at
spray flux values of (a) 0.05, (b) 0.3 and (c) 0.8. What fraction of the powder surface will be wetted
by the spray? (You just need to show a simple calculation for one spray flux value and furnish the
others in a spread sheet)

Spray flux (Ψa)

Number of drops (n)
0.05 0.3 0.8
1
2
3
4

Q3 Granulation
Spray granulation is used in a pharmaceutical production process. Under normal condition, the process
is capable of process 150 kg of dry powder with a volume of 600 L per batch. During normal operation,
the mixture is stirred at 90 rpm and the water is added at a flowrate of 2L/min from a spray nozzle
producing an average drop size of 400 µm. Due to an incorrect setting, the actual flow rate in an
atypical batch was 3.5 L/min and the drop size was 250 µm. The spray width and powder surface
velocity were unaffected and remained constant at 40 cm and 60 cm/s. Calculate the dimensionless
spray flux (𝛹𝑎 ) and fraction of surface wetted (𝑓𝑤𝑒𝑡 ) for the normal and atypical batch. Under these
two operation conditions, what will happen to the granulate size? (hint: you may evaluate the nuclei
fraction fi using the equation giving in lecture note)

Q4. Conceptual question (No need to submit)

(1) How to change the zeta potential of a colloid dispersed in water?
(2) What is the difference between coagulation and flocculation?