Development and numerical analysis of a condenser in a freeze drying process

V magistrski nalogi je obravnavano projektiranje, modeliranje in numerična analiza kondenzatorja v procesu zamrzovalnega sušenja. Po začetni fazi liofilizacije – zamrzovanju, sledi vakuumiranje, da lahko poteče sublimacijsko sušenje. Za doseganje vakuuma skrbita vakuumska črpalka in kondenzator. Ta mora biti pravilno načrtovan, projektiran in izveden, da lahko pride do desublimacije vse vodne pare. Pretoki par med procesom so določeni s spremljanjem kinetike sušenja jagod na laboratorijskem liofilizatorju. Potrebna površina kondenzatorja je določena tako, da je kondenzator sposoben prevzeti več vlage, kot je v enem ciklu sušenja sublimira. Sposobnost desublimacije in ustreznost kondenzatorja je numerično analizirana v programskem paketu ANSYS Fluent s pomočjo doprogramiranih lastnih funkcij za izračun ponora mase vodne pare.This master thesis deals with design and numerical analysis of a condenser in a freeze-drying process. After the freezing (first phase of freeze-drying process) follows vacuuming in order to achieve the conditions needed for freeze drying. The vacuum pump and the condenser are responsible for achieving the vacuum. The condenser must be properly designed and built so that all water vapor can be desublimated. Water vapor flow rates during the process are determined by monitoring the drying kinetics of a strawberry on a laboratory lyophilizer. The required condenser surface area is determined in a way that the condenser is able to absorb water for more than one drying cycle. The numerical analysis of condenser efficiency is carried out in ANSYS Fluent software coupled with user defined functions for calculation of water mass sink