The impact of multi-frequency and forced disturbances upon drop size distributions in prilling

The dynamics of curved liquid jets, such as those emanating from wall of a porous cylinder rotating about its vertical axis, are of interest to industries employing the prilling process to manufacture particulate products such as fertilisers. Although many theoretical and experimental studies have been published to date, none have addressed how mechanical vibrations affect the dynamics. In this paper, the influence of multiple disturbance frequencies upon the jet dynamics(imparted by mechanical vibrations), is examined for the first time. The theoretical predictions, obtained using both linear and non-linear models, show a much better agreement with results obtained from pilot-scale experiments than have been obtained inprevious studies. The use of additional forced disturbances to control the particle size is also considered. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.