Correlation of particle diameters and determination of important variables for particles obtained by using the electrospray process and alginate solutions

Abstract

The electrospray process is a process that uses an electric field to influence the liquid dripping out of a capillary tube in order to obtain a reduction in the mean droplet diameter. The theory regarding this process is called electrohydrodynamics. Based on the previous experimental results and on the published theories, important variables are listed. Some of those variables have a significant influence on the droplet diameter, while others should be controlled in order to check the applicability of the mentioned theories. Since theoretical equations have a simple power-type form, that form was used for obtaining a correlation of particle diameters when alginate solutions are used. Previous experimental data and a Generalized Reduced Gradient (GRG) nonlinear solver were used for calculating the coefficients present in the correlation. Interesting results were obtained because certain variables were eliminated during the calculation. Based on the presented analysis, future experiments should monitor more variables and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) should also be used.