NUMERICAL STUDY ON THE VAPOR FLOW IN THE FREEZE DRYER

摘要

Freeze drying is a new developed drying technology. It has already applied to the realms extensively, such as food processing, pharmacy, biology and so on. For the equipment of freeze drying, drying cabinet is one of the core components. In the drying cabinet, pressure and temperature are important parameters to the quality of the products. In this paper, the pressure field inside the cabinet of a freeze dryer is simulated with the method of Computational Fluid Dynamics. The influences of the number of shelves, the distance between the shelves and the sublimation rate are analyzed. The results show that for this type of the lyophilizer, the optimal shelf arrangement is 3+1 form with the distance of 60mm. These results can provide reference for the design of freeze dryer and the selection of process parameters.