A new model of the effect of stirring intensity on the rate of secondary nucleation

Abstract

Abstract Secondary nucleation in industrial crystallizers depends on both supersaturation and mechanical stress by stirring. Most models which consider mechanical stress assume that nucleation is proprotional to the energy transferred to the crystals during collisions. This is not based on any physical relationship and, in addition, the models do not satisfactorily reproduce the experimental results. Own model, based on the theory of Hertz/Huber, which accounts for the stress of the crystals caused by impact, gave better results. This well‐known and proven theory allows the calculation of the volume abraded during collisions between crystals and stirrer or walls. Introducing a nucleate efficienncy, the effect of mechanical stress on the rate of secondary nucleation, due to stirring intensity and crystallizer size, can be determined.