Study of the drying behavior of high load multiphase droplets in an acoustic levitator at high temperature conditions

Experimental data on the drying behavior of suspension droplets is limited, despite its importance in industrial applications for material processing, chemical or the food industry involving spray dryers. This fact is particularly significant for high load and temperature conditions, as found in such industrial applications. In this work, the drying behavior of acoustically levitated multiphase droplets has been experimentally investigated. The acoustic tube levitator has been modified in order to allow experiments to be performed at high temperature conditions. The flow rate, temperature and relative humidity of this air stream can be controlled by an air conditioning system. A CMOS camera and a back-light illumination system are used to measure the droplet cross-sectional area and vertical position of the droplet during the drying process. The experiments have been performed using water–glass particle suspensions. The glass particles have a mean particle size and relative density of 13 μm and 2.5, respectively. The effect of the air temperature (60 °C