Droplet size distribution (DSD) of an emulsion is one of the important properties that affect product quality, stability, appearance, and rheology. Reliable prediction of DSDs in high-pressure homogenizers under various emulsion formulation and processing conditions is still challenging. A zero-dimensional population balance equation (PBE) model was developed to take account of the heterogeneous turbulent dissipation rate through its volume fraction distribution rather than the mean value as the coupling parameter between CFD and PBE. Furthermore, the effect of emulsifier on coalescence was also incorporated through the surface coverage of emulsifier. The model can give satisfactory DSDs under different oil fractions, homogenization pressures, and emulsifier concentrations for the oil-in-water emulsions. Moreover, the predictions were more sensitive to the breakage kernel parameters than to the coalescence ones or the number of daughter droplets. This approach is beneficial to the fast computational product design with less computational cost and reasonable prediction.

中文翻译：

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湍流耗散率均质的高压均质机液滴尺寸分布预测

乳液的液滴尺寸分布（DSD）是影响产品质量，稳定性，外观和流变性的重要特性之一。在各种乳液配方和加工条件下，可靠地预测高压均质机中的DSD仍然具有挑战性。建立了零维人口平衡方程（PBE）模型，通过其体积分数分布而不是平均值作为CFD和PBE之间的耦合参数来考虑非均质湍流耗散率。此外，乳化剂对聚结的作用也通过乳化剂的表面覆盖而结合。该模型可以为水包油型乳液提供不同油分，均质压力和乳化剂浓度下的令人满意的DSD。此外，预测对破损核参数比对聚结参数或子滴数更敏感。这种方法有利于以较少的计算成本和合理的预测进行快速的计算产品设计。