Article Title
Cavitation patterns in high-pressure homogenization nozzles with cylindrical orifices: Influence of mixing stream in Simultaneous Homogenization and Mixing
Keywords
high-pressure homogenization, cavitation, simultaneous homogenization and mixing (SHM), shadow-graphic images, orifice, choked flow, hydraulic flip
Abstract
High-pressure homogenization is the state of the art to produce high-quality emulsions with droplet sizes in the submicron range. In simultaneous homogenization and mixing (SHM), an additional mixing stream is inserted into a modified homogenization nozzle in order to create synergies between the unit operation homogenization and mixing. In this work, the influence of the mixing stream on cavitation patterns after a cylindrical orifice is investigated. Shadow- graphic images of the cavitation patterns were taken using a high-speed camera and an optically accessible mixing chamber. Results show that adding the mixing stream can contribute to coalescence of cavitation bubbles. Choked cavitation was observed at higher cavitation numbers σ with increasing mixing stream. The influence of the mixing stream became more significant at a higher orifice to outlet ratio, where a hydraulic flip was also observed at higher σ. The decrease of cavitation intensity with increasing back-pressure was found to be identical with conventional high-pressure homogenization. In the future, the results can be taken into account in the SHM process design to improve the efficiency of droplet break-up by preventing cavitation or at least hydraulic flip.
Recommended Citation
Gall, V.; Rütten, E.; and Karbstein, H. P.
(2022)
"Cavitation patterns in high-pressure homogenization nozzles with cylindrical orifices: Influence of mixing stream in Simultaneous Homogenization and Mixing,"
Experimental and Computational Multiphase Flow: Vol. 4:
Iss.
2, Article 3.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42757-020-0088-9
Available at:
https://dc.tsinghuajournals.com/experimental-and-computational-multiphase-flow/vol4/iss2/3
