Drop breakup can occur inside the gap of a high-pressure homogenizer – New evidence from experimental breakup visualizations
Håkansson, Andreas LU
(2025)
In Journal of Food Engineering
389.
- Abstract
High-pressure homogenizers are used extensively in food and beverage processing. For design and operation optimization, it is vital to understand where breakup takes place. Using an experimental high-speed camera setup on a scaled model, this contribution shows that breakup events can occur inside of the gap of a homogenizer valve. This contrasts with many previous studies which only observe breakup downstream of the gap. Results show that gap breakup occurs at a substantially lower rate than outlet chamber breakup. Comparisons with computational fluid dynamics suggest that a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for gap breakup, is that the drop passes into the high-shear region close to the separation zone at the seat wall.... (More)
High-pressure homogenizers are used extensively in food and beverage processing. For design and operation optimization, it is vital to understand where breakup takes place. Using an experimental high-speed camera setup on a scaled model, this contribution shows that breakup events can occur inside of the gap of a homogenizer valve. This contrasts with many previous studies which only observe breakup downstream of the gap. Results show that gap breakup occurs at a substantially lower rate than outlet chamber breakup. Comparisons with computational fluid dynamics suggest that a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for gap breakup, is that the drop passes into the high-shear region close to the separation zone at the seat wall. Implications for food emulsification are discussed.
(Less)
- author
- Håkansson, Andreas
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-03
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Beverage processing, Dairy processing, Emulsification, Emulsion
- in
- Journal of Food Engineering
- volume
- 389
- article number
- 112391
- pages
- 5 pages
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85208568057
- ISSN
- 0260-8774
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2024.112391
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Author
- id
- 714e6606-a2c1-48c9-a727-c0cc2877da47
- date added to LUP
- 2024-11-22 09:37:14
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 14:18:31
@article{714e6606-a2c1-48c9-a727-c0cc2877da47,
abstract = {{<p>High-pressure homogenizers are used extensively in food and beverage processing. For design and operation optimization, it is vital to understand where breakup takes place. Using an experimental high-speed camera setup on a scaled model, this contribution shows that breakup events can occur inside of the gap of a homogenizer valve. This contrasts with many previous studies which only observe breakup downstream of the gap. Results show that gap breakup occurs at a substantially lower rate than outlet chamber breakup. Comparisons with computational fluid dynamics suggest that a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for gap breakup, is that the drop passes into the high-shear region close to the separation zone at the seat wall. Implications for food emulsification are discussed.</p>}},
author = {{Håkansson, Andreas}},
issn = {{0260-8774}},
keywords = {{Beverage processing; Dairy processing; Emulsification; Emulsion}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Journal of Food Engineering}},
title = {{Drop breakup can occur inside the gap of a high-pressure homogenizer – New evidence from experimental breakup visualizations}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2024.112391}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2024.112391}},
volume = {{389}},
year = {{2025}},
}