Spray and dispersion methods

Other features common to all these spray and dispersion methods include  

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Classically, aerosols are particles or droplets that range from about 0.15 to 5 p.m ia size and are suspended or dispersed ia a gaseous medium such as air. However, the term aerosol, as used ia this discussion, identifies a large number of products which are pressure-dispensed as a Hquid or semisohd stream, a mist, a fairly dry to wet spray, a powder, or even a foam. This definition of aerosol focuses on the container and the method of dispensiag, rather than on the form of the product. 

Suspended Particle Techniques. In these methods of size enlargement, granular soHds are produced direcdy from a Hquid or semiliquid phase by dispersion in a gas to allow solidification through heat and/or mass transfer. The feed Hquid, which may be a solution, gel, paste, emulsion, slurry, or melt, must be pumpable and dispersible. Equipment used includes spray dryers, prilling towers, spouted and fluidized beds, and pneumatic conveying dryers, all of which are amenable to continuous, automated, large-scale operation. Because attrition and fines carryover are common problems with this technique, provision must be made for recovery and recycling. 

Sprinkler systems are an effective way to contain fires. The system consists of an array of sprinkler heads connected to a water supply. The heads are mounted in a high location (usually near ceilings) and disperse a fine spray of water over an area when activated. The heads are activated by a variety of methods. A common approach activates the heads individually by the melting of a fusible link holding a plug in the head assembly. Once activated, the sprinklers cannot be turned off unless the main water supply is stopped. This approach is called a wet pipe system. These systems are used for storage areas, laboratories, control rooms, and small pilot areas. Another approach activates the entire sprinkler array from a common control point. The control point is connected to an array of heat and/or smoke detectors that start the sprinklers when an abnormal condition is detected. If a fire is detected, the entire sprinkler array within an area... 

Two numerical methods have been used for the solution of the spray equation. In the first method, i.e., the full spray equation method 543 544 the full distribution function / is found approximately by subdividing the domain of coordinates accessible to the droplets, including their physical positions, velocities, sizes, and temperatures, into computational cells and keeping a value of / in each cell. The computational cells are fixed in time as in an Eulerian fluid dynamics calculation, and derivatives off are approximated by taking finite differences of the cell values. This approach suffersfrom two principal drawbacks (a) large numerical diffusion and dispersion... 

In a gas-continuous impinging stream device with liquid as the dispersed phase, the liquid is usually atomized into fine droplets with nozzles of an appropriate type, and ejected into gas flows to form droplets-in-gas suspensions before impingement. This can be called the Primary Atomization, and it defines the primary dispersity of liquids. The mechanism of primary atomization and the methods for predicting size distribution (SD) and mean diameter (MD) of the sprayed droplets have been widely reported and some sources of references may be found, e.g., in Ref. [69]. 

Spray onto dispersed powder (cf. powder clustering, agitation methods above) Atomized liquid feed is sprayed into circulating dispersion of already-dried particles. Hot gases maintain dispersion. Spray granulation, spouted and fluidized bed granulation Fluidized and spouted beds, Wurster apparatus... 

Drum and belt drying and solidification systems are discussed below. This equipment is capable of forming granular products directly from fluid pastes and melts, without intermediate preforms, by drying or solidification on solid surfaces. Drum and belt systems offer an alternative to the dispersion methods (such as the prilling of sulphur, fertilizers and resins and the spray granulation of clays) described in Chapter 7. 

Epoxy adhesive formulations demand a great variety of solvents and diluents with a wide range of evaporation rates, solvent strengths, and dispersion powers. These variations are required due to (1) the many types of epoxy resins, curing agents, and possible organic additives that can be used within a formulation and (2) the many different possible methods that can be used to apply the epoxy to the substrate (brush, spray, trowel, etc.). 

Emulsion Solvent Evaporation The basic concept of the emulsion solvent evaporation technique producing nanoparticles is very straightforward. The particles are formed as an emulsion of a polymer-surfactant mixture and dispersed in an organic solvent. The solvent is then evaporated to leave behind the individual emulsion droplets which form stable free nanoparticles [203], This method is far easier and more preferable over methods such as spray drying and homogenization and operates under ambient conditions and mild emulsification conditions. The size and composition of the final particles are affected by variables such as phase ratio of the emulsion system, organic solvent composition, emulsion concentration, apparatus used, and properties of the polymer [204],... 

The interfacial area is known accurately only in some systems used in laboratory studies falling laminar films, laminar cylindrical jets, undisturbed gas-liquid and liquid-liquid interfaces, and solid castings of known dimensions immersed in liquids. In all reactor systems used industrially such as packed towers, spray towers, and bubble trays, the interfacial area is relatively difficult to determine. Photographic, gamma-ray, light scattering and chemical methods have been used to determine a in bubble dispersions (5, 6, 7, 8, iO, 42). For an average bubble diameter dn, a superficial gas velocity Usa and a bubble rise velocity Un,... 

The most frequently used method of manufacturing solid solutions and dispersions with povidone has up to now been the solvent method. In this, the active substance and povidone are dissolved together in a solvent and this is subsequently evaporated in an oven, under vacuum or sometimes by spray-drying. 

Gas flow and solids flow are usually cocurrent, one exception being a countercurrent flow spray dryer. The method of gas-solids contacting is best described as through-circulation however, in the dilute condition, solids particles are so widely dispersed in the gas that they exhibit apparently no effect upon one another, and they offer essentially no resistance to the passage of gas among them. 

The production and dispersion of spray clouds for space treatments can in the main be carried out using any one of five methods ... 

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