A new spray-drying system has been designed to overcome the limitations caused by existing designs. A key feature of the approach has been the systematic use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to guide innovation in the design process. An example of an innovation is the development of a box-shaped transitional feature between the bottom of the main drying chamber and the entrance to the secondary chamber. In physical experiments, the box design performed better in all three representative operating conditions, including the current conditions, a higher feed solids concentration (30% solids rather than 8.8%), and a higher inlet drying temperature (230 °C rather than 170 °C). The current conditions showed a 3% increase in yield (solids recovery) while the 30% feed condition improved the yield by 7.5%, and the higher temperature test increased the yield by 13.5%. Statistical analysis showed that there were significant reductions in the wall flux at the high solids feed concentration. The observed deposition in the box was primarily from the predicted particle impacts by an inertial deposition process on the base of the box, which underwent little degradation due to lower temperatures. There is therefore evidence that the box design is a better design alternative under all operating conditions compared with other traditional designs.
In order to boost the electromechanical coupling factor and decrease the characteristic impedance, a 1-3 piezoelectric composite with a 3-tier polymer structure was designed and fabricated, in which epoxy resin constitutes the middle layer and silicone rubber is used to clamp the epoxy. The effective parameters of the composite, such as resonant frequency, electromechanical coupling factor, and characteristic impedance, were studied by the finite element method and experiment. The experimental results indicate that the electromechanical coupling factor of the composite is enhanced by 8.4% and the characteristic impedance is decreased by 52.8%, compared with the traditional 1-3 ceramic/epoxy composite.
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