About myself

I come originally from Colombia, where I finished both my Bachelor and Master in Chemical Engineering at the Universidad de los Andes. Since my Bachelor, I focused on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and process modelling. After my Master, I worked for a couple years as a Process and CFD Engineer for the oil industry, mostly designing and developing extraction processes for oil fields. However, I have always had an interest for food engineering. During my Bachelor, I did an internship at the largest brewery in Colombia, Bavaria S.A. I also did a research stay at the LVT in 2018, where I worked on the simulation of atomizers for spray drying. I started my PhD project in November 2020 on the same subject.

Research focus

Fluid atomization is an important unit operation that is normally used to improve heat and mass transport in various fields and industries, such as combustion technology, surface coating, and spray drying. There is a large variety of atomizers, but the process functions of most of them are not yet understood. One such type of atomizer is the Air-Core-Liquid-Ring (ACLR)-atomizer. Studies with the ACLR-atomizer show that it requires less airflow and energy than other twin fluid nozzles when handling fluids with high viscosity or high solid contents. It is for this reason that my research focuses on understanding the relation between geometry parameters, process conditions and product properties during atomization with an ACLR nozzle.

Methods

The study is divided into an experimental analysis and a numerical modelling of the system, both of which will be performed simultaneously. Atomization tests can be carried out at the institute's own spray stand, which enables online measurement of the spray droplet size distribution by means of laser diffraction spectroscopy. The Institute’s computational facilities, as well as the bwUniCluster, will be used to simulate the internal and external flow conditions of the atomizer.