Liquids to be broken up using a prefilming airblast atomizer are usually Newton liquids with relatively low viscosities. While in some industrial processes, such as spray drying, liquids to be atomized are high concentration suspensions or non-Newtonian fluids with high viscosities. In this paper, non-Newtonian fluids with viscosity up to 4. 4 Pa · s were effectively atomized using a specially designed prefilming airblast atomizer. The atomizer enabled liquid to extend to a thickness-adjustable film and forced the atomizing air stream to swirl with 30° or 45° through gas distributors with spiral slots. The liquid film was impinged by the swirling air stream resulting in the disintegration of the film into drops. Drop sizes were measured using a laser diffraction technique.An improved four-parameter mathematical model was established to relate the Sauter mean diameter of drops to the atomization conditions in terms of power dependencies on three dimensionless groups: Weber number,Ohnesorge number and air liquid mass ratio. The friction on the surface of the 1iquid film made by swirling air stream played an important role in the prefilming atomization at the conditions of low air velocity and low liquid viscosity. In this case, the liquid film was disintegrated into drops according to the classical wavy-sheet mechanism, thus thinner liquid films and high swirl levels of the atomizing air produced smaller drops. With the increase of the air velocity and the liquid viscosity, the effect of the friction on the prefilming atomization relatively weakened, whereas the impingement on the liquid film made by atomizing air stream in a direction normal to the liquid film and corresponding momentum transfer gradually strengthened and eventually dominated the disruption of liquid into drops, which induced that the initial thickness of the liquid film and the swirl of atomizing air stream exercised a minor influence on the drop sizes.