Dynamic evolution of PSD in continuous flow processes: A comparative study of fixed and moving grid numerical techniques

The present study provides a comprehensive investigation on the numerical solution of the dynamic population balance equation (PBE) in continuous flow processes. Specifically, continuous particulate processes undergoing particle aggregation and/or growth are examined. The dynamic PBE is numerically solved in both the continuous and its equivalent discrete form using the Galerkin on finite elements method (GFEM) and the moving grid technique (MGT) of Kumar and Ramkrishna [1997. Chemical Engineering Science 52, 4659-4679], respectively. Numerical simulations are carried out over a wide range of variation of particle aggregation and growth rates till the dynamic solution has reached its final steady-state value. The performance of the two numerical methods is assessed by a direct comparison of the calculated particle size distributions and/or their moments to available steady-state analytical solutions.