# Numerical Simulation of Flow Characteristics for Supercritical CO2-Sprayed Polyurethane Resin

## TL;DR

This study uses computer simulations to understand how supercritical CO2 affects the spraying of polyurethane resin, aiming to reduce harmful emissions.

## Contribution

The paper introduces a numerical simulation approach to analyze flow and atomization characteristics in supercritical CO2-based spraying processes.

## Key findings

- Higher scCO2 volume fraction reduces fluid density and increases spray velocity and distance.
- Higher inlet pressure and coating content improve droplet uniformity within a 30° spray range.
- The study provides theoretical guidance for optimizing scCO2-sprayed polyurethane resin processes.

## Abstract

Conventional paint spraying processes often use small molecule organic solvents and emit a large amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are highly toxic, flammable, and explosive. Alternatively, the spraying technology using supercritical CO2 (scCO2) as a solvent has attracted attention because of its ability to reduce VOC emissions, but the flow characteristics of coatings have not been thoroughly studied. Therefore, we numerically simulate the spraying process based on the actual process of scCO2 spraying polyurethane coatings by computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The effects of inlet pressure and volume fraction of scCO2 on the fluid motion parameters inside the nozzle as well as the atomization effect of droplets outside the nozzle are investigated. The simulated results show that a fluid with a large volume fraction of scCO2 will obtain a smaller density, resulting in a larger velocity and a larger distance for the spray to effectively spray. Higher coating content and bigger inlet pressures will result in higher discrete phase model (DPM) concentrations, and thus a bigger inlet pressure should be used to make the droplets more uniform across the 30° spray range. This study can provide theoretical guidance for the process of scCO2-sprayed polyurethane resin.