Process Model for Cleaning by Impinging Jet 2

The efficient cleaning of machines and equipment of the food processing industry is of great economic importance. This results from the demand of the consumer for durable and high-quality products, as well as from the manufacturer’s interest in an automated, effective and at the same time resource-saving cleaning process.

The focus of this follow-up project is the cleaning of machinery and equipment in the food industry by means of liquid water jets. The main objective is to develop an easy-to-handle process model for use as a design tool in two levels of abstraction: an implementation in a flow solver and an empirical model. For the parameterization of the models, a methodology for characterizing of soils will be developed.

To ensure the applicability in industrial practice, the process model has to reproduce time-varying soiling properties. In addition to the results of the previous project, viscous flow of soil, adhesive failure of soil, inclined jets and surfaces and moving jets are taken into account.

With the extended process model it is possible to predict the cleaning progress of a wide range of industry relevant soils, and thus to perform custom-designed optimizations of specific cleaning processes with coherent liquid jets. Therefore, with the aid of the model and methods available after this project, costs are reduced in the development and the testing of components, machinery and equipment as well as during subsequent operation.