Characteristics of Dry Ice Particles Produced by Expanding Liquid Carbon Dioxide and its Application for Surface Cleaning

Abstract:

The characteristics of dry ice particles produced by expanding liquid carbon dioxide and its application for surface cleaning have been studied experimentally. The production of the dry ice particles was based on the Joule-Thomson effect. The ejected dry ice particles were observed using a high-speed microscope camera. Through digital image processing, the particle size and particle velocity in the jet were analyzed. To in-situ measure the size distribution of the dry ice particles, a laser diffraction method was used. The experimental results showed that the primary dry ice particles ejected from the expansion nozzle were about 1 μm in mass median diameter. The presence of a thermally insulated tube at the outlet of the nozzle enhanced the agglomeration of the particles, whereby agglomerates of about 100 μm in mass median diameter were formed. The performance of dry ice jet for removing fine particles adhering to surfaces was also evaluated using microscopic observation. It was found that the particle removal process consists of two stagesslow removal stage and rapid removal stagethat are related to the jet temperature.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volume 508)
• Pages: 38-42
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.508.38
• Online since: April 2012
• Authors: Yi Hung Liu, Shuji Matsusaka
• Keywords: Agglomeration, Dry Ice, Jet Flow, Particle Size Measurement, Removal Efficiency

References

[1] S.A. Hoenig, Cleaning surfaces with dry ice, Compressed Air Mag. 91 (1986) 22-25.

[2] R. Sherman, D. Hirt and R. Vane, Surface cleaning with the carbon dioxide snow jet, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 12 (1994) 1876-1881.

[3] H. Yamaguchi, X.R. Zhang and K. Fujima, Basic study on new cryogenic refrigeration using CO2 solid-gas two phase flow, Int. J. Refrig. 31 (2008) 404-410.

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2007.08.001

[4] R. Sonoda, Y. Hara, T. Iwasaki and S. Watano, Improvement of dissolution property of poorly water-soluble drug by supercritical freeze granulation, Chem. Pharm. Bull. 57 (2009) 1040-1044.

DOI: 10.1248/cpb.57.1040

[5] E.A. Swain, S.R. Carter and S.A. Hoenig, U.S. Patent 5, 125, 979. (1992).

[6] Y.H. Liu, H. Maruyama and S. Matsusaka, Agglomeration process of dry ice particles produced by expanding liquid carbon dioxide, Adv. Powder Technol. 21 (2010) 652-657.

DOI: 10.1016/j.apt.2010.07.009