Pneumatic Drying of Solid Particle: Experimental and Model Comparison

Abstract

This article presents a mathematical model approach to studying the drying phenomena of solid particle in a pneumatic (flash) dryer. The analysis is focused on the pneumatic momentum, mass, and heat balance of the solid particle when it moves inside the reactor. A fixed bed fluidization model was used to calculate the forces balance on the single solid particle. By solving mass and heat balance occurred in the particle, the water/liquid removal efficiency can be calculated. To validate the model calculations, we conducted a set of experiments and compared the simulation with the experimental data. High-moisture, natural concrete sand, the additional material for portland cement, was used and dried along a vertical cylindrical tube with length of 2 m and diameter of 6.68 cm. The drying gas was supplied by a high-capacity air blower which was connected to the burner to produce 120 m³/h of drying gas with maximum temperature of 800°C.

Keywords:

• pneumatic drying
• pneumatic transport
• mass-heat balance
• pneumatic drying model

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author greatly thanks people who kindly helped on this experiment. Special thanks is extended to Ir. Yazid Bindar, M.Sc, Ph.D., as the owner of the furnace and his advice during the experiment, and Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and KOSEF for the support.