CFD SIMULATION AND COMPARISON OF INDUSTRIAL CRYSTALLIZERS

Simulation of flow patterns in eleven industrial crystallizers (standard Messo, Cerny direct contact, Swenson draft tube baffled, Swenson walker, Swenson evaporative, Oslo cooling, Oslo Krystal, APV Kestner, Batch Vacuum, stirred tank with disc turbine, and stirred tank with pitched blade impeller) have been carried out using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Population balance modelling (PBM) is coupled with CFD to obtain better results. In all the cases, the crystallizer volume was 100liter and the power consumption per unit volume was 1kW/m(3). The simulation results have been presented in terms of mean velocity components, turbulent kinetic energy and dissipation rate. On the basis of the flow patterns, these eleven crystallizers have been compared for crystal size distribution (CSD). It was found that Swenson Evaporative, Krystal and Batch Vacuum provide relatively low CSD.