Consideration of Primary Particle Properties in Agglomeration

The rate of agglomeration in spray fluidized beds is proportional to the frequency of collisions and the probability that colliding particles will stick together rather than 

evident, that the agglomeration rate depends on the fraction of outer particle surface covered with binder. This fraction does not immediately result from how much liquid is sprayed into the bed, because sprayed liquid may be located both on the surface or in the interior of porous agglomerates. Liquid on the surface can lead to further aggregation, whereas liquid trapped in agglomerate voids is not accessible and, therefore, inactive for agglomeration (steric hindrance). Fractional surface coverage and accessible binder fraction depend on the properties of primary particles, so that these properties are expected to also influence the kinetics of the agglomeration process. 

primary particles were created computationally in the form of so-called Gaussian blobs (Stepanek and Rajniak, 2006), as illustrated in Fig. 7.24. This method distorts more or less strongly the surface of a sphere towards different primary 

Caussian-correlated random field, (c) underlyingspherical particle, (d) particle surface modulated by the correlated random field. 

By adding more liquid, a transition to the capillary state occurs, which is highly dependent on the primary particle morphology. The accessible binder fraction (Fig. 7.25b) follows a sigmoidal dependence on granule composition, which can 

---