Role of rheological characteristics in amorphous food particle-wall collisions in spray drying

A gap in knowledge exists in modeling particle-wall collision of amorphous food particles in spray drying. Most work uses a stick-upon-contact or glass transition criterion which tends to over-predict the deposition. This communication introduces a new idea in relating viscoelastic rheological characteristics to modeling of amorphous food particle-wall collisions. A time–temperature superposition technique was employed. This approach allows the effect of impacting velocity and particle size as well as the effect of particle rigidity to be incorporated in determining the impaction outcome. Trends obtained from the case study undertaken showed good qualitative agreement with past reports. Suggestions are included on possible extension to model particle–particle collisions.