Drying of Lentil Including Shrinkage: A Numerical Simulation

Abstract

This article presents a theoretical study about drying of lentil including shrinkage. The two-dimensional unsteady-state diffusion modeling written in the oblate spheroidal coordinates system considers the volume variation effect, convective boundary condition at the surface of the solid, and variable thermo-physical properties. The governing equation was discretized using the finite-volume method and the linear equations system was solved by Gauss-Siedel iterative method. To validate the model, numerical results of the average moisture content were compared with experimental data from eight experiments and a good agreement was obtained. The diffusion coefficients for all drying experiments are determined using the least square error technique.     

Drying of Lentil Including Shrinkage: A Numerical Simulation

This article presents a theoretical study about drying of lentil including shrinkage. The two-dimensional unsteady-state diffusion modeling written in the oblate spheroidal coordinates system considers the volume variation effect, convective boundary condition at the surface of the solid, and variable thermo-physical properties. The governing equation was discretized using the finite-volume method and the linear equations system was solved by Gauss-Siedel iterative method. To validate the model, numerical results of the average moisture content were compared with experimental data from eight experiments and a good agreement was obtained. The diffusion coefficients for all drying experiments are determined using the least square error technique.     

Modeling at Pore-Scale Isothermal Drying of Porous Materials: Liquid and Vapor Diffusivity

Numerical simulations of isothermal drying of non-hygroscopic liquid-wet rigid porous media are performed. Two- and three-dimensional pore networks represent pore spaces. Two types of mechanisms are considered: evaporation and hydraulic flow. The drying is considered to be a modified form of invasion percolation. Liquid in pore corners allows for a hydraulic connection throughout the network at all times. As drying progresses, liquid is replaced by vapor by two fundamental mechanisms: evaporation and pressure gradient-driven liquid flow. Using a Monte Carlo simulation, evaporation and drainage times are computed. The controlling mechanism is indicated by the shorter calculated time. Initially, the drying is governed by liquid flow, then by a combination of liquid flow and evaporation and finally by local evaporation. Reported here are the distributions of liquid and vapor with drying time, capillary pressure curves, liquid film saturation curves, and liquid diffusivity and vapor diffusivity as a function of liquid saturation.     

Modeling at Pore-Scale Isothermal Drying of Porous Materials: Liquid and Vapor Diffusivity

Numerical simulations of isothermal drying of non-hygroscopic liquid-wet rigid porous media are performed. Two- and three-dimensional pore networks represent pore spaces. Two types of mechanisms are considered: evaporation and hydraulic flow. The drying is considered to be a modified form of invasion percolation. Liquid in pore corners allows for a hydraulic connection throughout the network at all times. As drying progresses, liquid is replaced by vapor by two fundamental mechanisms: evaporation and pressure gradient–driven liquid flow. Using a Monte Carlo simulation, evaporation and drainage times are computed. The controlling mechanism is indicated by the shorter calculated time. Initially, the drying is governed by liquid flow, then by a combination of liquid flow and evaporation and finally by local evaporation. Reported here are the distributions of liquid and vapor with drying time, capillary pressure curves, liquid film saturation curves, and liquid diffusivity and vapor diffusivity as a function of liquid saturation.     

Combined Convective and Microwave Drying of Agglomerated Sand: Internal Transfer Modeling with the Gas Pressure Effect

In order to improve the industrial drying (hot air and microwave) of inserts made of agglomerated sand, a comprehensive internal heat and water transfer model has been proposed. In this model, the internal gas phase pressure effect was made perfectly explicit, especially the phenomena of liquid and vapour transfer by filtration and of liquid expulsion at the surface. This model was validated on the basis of the experimental mean water content and core temperature curves for drying trials at different microwave powers. Then, it was used for comparing the drying time and the internal pressure level calculated for four particular processes: a standard process with high temperature air applied all over the time, a strong process with high power microwaves applied all over, and two processes which alternate the two heating modes. It was demonstrated that the combined and alternative processes provide a real possibility for faster drying with less internal pressure and thus with less cracking risk. The microwaves should be applied only in the first hour of the process and with decreasing power. The decrease of the drying time was around 30% with regard to the hot air standard process.     

A Novel Alternative Method for Modeling the Effects of Air Temperature and Slice Thickness on Quality and Drying Kinetics of Tomato Slices: Superposition Technique

The effect of air temperature (AT) and slice thickness (ST) on the quality and drying kinetics of tomato slices were studied. The drying period of tomato slices to reach the moisture content of 15% (wb) ranged from 2.6 to 18.7 h. The water diffusivity, activation energy, and resistance to diffusion ranged from 1.4 × 10^?10 to 2.8 × 10^?9 m²/s, 21.25 to 23.4 kJ/mol, and from 939 to 4590 m² s/kg, respectively. Drying had a significant effect on ascorbic acid, soluble solid, acidity, and pH (P = 0.01). The ascorbic acid degradation was greatly influenced by ST. The results show that time-temperature superposition technique (TTST) was very efficient in the modeling of the drying process. The proposed TTST provides a novel alternative in curve-fitting exercise of drying data. Neural networks also showed favorable performance in estimating the drying functions.