A multi-compartment population balance model for high shear granulation

This work extends the granulation model published by Braumann et al. (2007) (Chemical Engineering Science, 62, 4717-4728) to include multiple compartments in order to account for mixture heterogeneity encountered in powder mixing processes. A stochastic weighted algorithm is adapted to solve the granulation model which includes simultaneous coalescence and breakage. Then, a new numerical method to solve stochastic reactor networks is devised. The numerical behaviour of the new stochastic weighted algorithm is compared against the existing direct simulation algorithm. Lastly, the performance of the new compartmental model is then investigated by comparing the predicted particle size distribution against an experimentally measured size distribution. It is found that the new stochastic weighted algorithm exhibits superior performance compared to the direct simulation algorithm and the multi-compartment model produces results with better agreement with the experimental results compared to the original single-compartment model.