CFD Modeling of Droplet Spreading Behavior on Tablet Edge Using Fluent 14.0

In this paper, a numerical model was developed for direct simulation of droplet
spreading behavior on the tablet edge since the coating unifonnity become the most
critical problem nowadays in pharmaceutical industry. Owing to that problem, a
simulation of droplet spreading behavior on the tablet edge has been developed to study
the effect of tablet surface to the droplet spreading behavior. This modeling will be
conducted by using integrated software, Computational Fluid Dynamics which is Fluent
14.0. Only water will be used in this modeling over to the different velocity of droplet.
As addition, the surface roughness and contact angle also will be varying due to study
the behavior of the spreading in certain condition. This project actually is the
continuality of the previous laboratory experiment which is the study of the droplet
impact behavior on the edge of a tablet to predict the coating variation, conducted by Ku
Zilati Ku Shaari and Richard Turton from Department of Chemical Engineering, West
Virginia University, Morgantown. The result of the simulation will be compared to this
experiment result in order to have the clear understanding of spreading behavior on the
tablet edge. As the result, there is not much different of the droplet spreading behavior
between geometry I, geometry 2 and geometry 3 due to the very small change in the
surface roughness applied to the wall. Theoretically, the smoothest surface will give the
largest spreading factor, D;/ Do. Thus, further development and study on the model will
be taken for the future work.