The assessment of a characteristic drying curve for milk powder for use incomputational fluid dynamics modelling

The assessment of a characteristic drying curve for milk powder for use in computational fluid dynamics modelling is reported in this work, for partic le sizes and drying conditions typical of those in spray dryers. A review o f previous literature, with particle diameters greater than 2 mm, has shown that a linear falling-rate curve is an acceptable approximation for the hi ndered drying of this material. For the diameters of milk particles in spra y dryers, the drying times are predicted using a linear falling-rate curve to be of the order of 1 s compared with residence times of 20-80 s in full- scale equipment. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.