Modeling of Kinetics in Stationary and Intermittent Drying

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present the mathematical model describing the kinetics of convective drying in stationary and nonstationary (intermittent) conditions. The drying curves and the temperature of the dried body changing in time are computed for the drying programs corresponding to a number of experimental tests of intermittent drying presented in the authors' earlier paper.^{[ 1 ]} One states a very satisfactory adherence of the theoretical and the experimental results. The mathematical model describing the kinetics of total drying process and comprising the intermittent conditions is a novelty of this article. Such a model imitating precisely the drying kinetics determined experimentally can be helpful for numerical calculation of energy consumption in specially programmed drying processes. In this way one can construct effective drying processes optimized with respect to drying time and energy consumption by preserving a good quality of dried products.

Keywords:

• Convective drying
• Experimental validation of the theory
• Kinetics
• Periodically changing air temperature and humidity

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was carried out as a part of research project NN 209 129938 sponsored by Ministry of Science and Higher Education.