Simulation of the growth of sucrose crystals in a sugar-containing solution

Abstract

Crystallization is one of the most important steps in the technological flow of commodity sugar. By its nature, it develops in a fairly wide temperature range, conditions of varying concentration of the solution, its peptization and other mass-exchange process of formation and growth of sugar crystals in a sugar solution by diffusion transfer in it sucrose molecules. To this it is necessary to add such complicating physical and mathematical formalization phenomena, affecting crystallization, such as the shape of the crystal, purity, viscous properties and surface tension of the solution, the presence of non-sugars, etc. Therefore, among the factors that determine the whole process, the factors usually take place, keeping among them only priority and most important from the point of view of the study. The article, unlike known analogues, provides justification and quantitative analysis of the kinetics of the sucrose crystallization process, taking into account the features of the crystal shape and diffusion properties of the solution. From the point of view of classical diffusion theory, the phenomenon of crystallization is interpreted as molecular with infinite rate of perilation from the source of diffusion transfer in the solution of sucrose molecules, so that the concentration in the sugar-containing liquid system is also supposed to change instantly at each point. However, since in the real world this effect is not observed, in order to resolve this contradiction, introduce the concepts of the indignant and unperturbed, separated by the diffusion front of the concentration of the regions of these phase states. Using the kinematic characteristics of the front, determine the time of the crystallization process in general in both phases. This allows us to calculate the processing period of the solution with greater accuracy than the results obtained on the basis of classical theory.