Intermittent drying of initially saturated porous materials

The aim of this paper is to examine the advantages of convective non-stationary (intermittent) drying and the possibility of its application to materials susceptible to crack formation (wood and ceramics). The notion “non-stationary” means here drying with periodically changeable parameters (air temperature and humidity). The drying time, energy consumption, and quality of dried samples are examined at different schedules of intermittent drying. The acoustic emission (AE) method is applied to monitor on line the material behavior and to detect the commencement of material cracking, and thus to find the moment at which the changes in drying conditions should be initiated. The mathematical model is developed to describe and imitate the intermittent drying kinetics determined experimentally. This model is used next for numerical calculation of the net energy used for drying, and to compare it with the measured total electric energy consumption. The tests were carried out on cylindrically shaped samples of wood and kaolin-clay. The benefits of non-stationary drying with respect to that performed in constant conditions were assessed. Such a formulated subject is a novelty in drying area.     

Mathematical model for intermittent microwave convective drying of food materials

Intermittent microwave convective drying (IMCD) is an advanced technology that improves both energy efficiency and food quality in drying. Modeling of IMCD is essential to understand the physics of this advanced drying process and to optimize the microwave power level and intermittency during drying. However, there is still a lack of modeling studies dedicated to IMCD. In this study, a mathematical model for IMCD was developed and validated with experimental data. The model showed that the interior temperature of the material was higher than the surface in IMCD, and that the temperatures fluctuated and redistributed due to the intermittency of the microwave power. This redistribution of temperature could significantly contribute to the improvement of product quality during IMCD. Limitations when using Lambert’s law for microwave heat generation were identified and discussed.     

A fractional kinetic model for drying of cement-based porous materials

In this work, we attempt to characterize the drying phenomena of cement-based porous materials (CBPMs) using a fractional kinetic model that is represented by a function for the kinetics of complex systems and characterized by a stretched exponential and/or power-law function with two parameters: the order index n and the fractional time index α. The fractional kinetic model recovers the classic Lewis and Page drying models as well as the pseudo first-order and pseudo second-order adsorption/desorption models with appropriate n and α values and boundary conditions. The fractional kinetic and classic drying models (i.e., the Lewis, Henderson and Pabis, Page, and logarithmic models) were used to interpret the experimental drying data for cement pastes and mortars. Rearrangement of the fractional kinetic correlation generates a linear log ?log plot. The results showed that the values obtained using the fractional kinetic model and Page models were in better agreement with the experimental data than the values obtained using the other selected models. The results may also suggest that drying of CBPMs is more than a diffusion-controlled process.     

Intermittent drying of porous materials containing binary mixtures

The selectivity during the drying of porous materials containing binary mixtures depends on the thermodynamic equilibrium, the gas-side mass transfer and the liquid-side mass transfer. Very often the drying process is nonselective owing to the controlling liquid-side mass transfer. However, in this case at the early stages a selectivity might be expected, because the liquid-side mass transfer resistance is negligible at the beginning. This so-called initial selectivity can be extended to the whole drying process by intermittent drying. For this purpose the time required for the development of the steady state concentration profile at the beginning (transient time t_T) and the time required for the degraation of the steady state concentration profile during recovery (relaxation time t_R) had been estimated theoretically and experimentally in this work.     

Optimal control of convective drying of saturated porous materials

Numerical simulations of optimal control applied to saturated capillary‐porous materials subjected to convective drying are presented. The optimization process is concerned with such drying parameters as drying rate, energy consumption, and product quality. The thermo‐hydro‐mechanical model of drying is developed to describe the kinetics of drying and to determine the drying‐induced stresses which are responsible for damage of dried products. The effective and the admissible stresses are defined and used to formulate the Huber‐von Mises–Hencky strength criterion enabling assessment of possible material damage. The method of genetic algorithm is used for operation with drying conditions in such a way as to ensure minimum energy consumption and to get the effective stress less than the strength of dried material, and thus, to preserve a good quality of dried products at possibly high drying rate. Numerically simulated optimal drying processes are illustrated on the examples of finite dimensions of kaolin‐clay cylinders subjected to convective drying. © 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 59: 4846–4857, 2013     

Thin-layer drying of porous materials: Selection of the appropriate mathematical model and relationships between thin-layer models parameters

Experimental investigation of the drying kinetics of various types of materials was carried out in laboratory-scale dryers under different conditions of temperature, microwave heating power and pressure. Leather samples (mechanically and vacuum-dewatered bull napa and wet blue cutting), paperboards (grafopack, testliner), wood (alder, birch, willow) and two pharmaceutical powders (chlorpropamide and hydrochlorotiazide) were dried in a microwave dryer. Thin clay slabs, Al–Ni catalyst and chlorpropamide were dried in a convection dryer, while chlorpropamide and ketoprofen were dried in a vacuum dryer. In order to compare drying kinetics, experimentally obtained data, X = f(t), were correlated with the Lewis “thin-layer” equation, the modified Page equation and Fick's second law. The drying constant, effective diffusion coefficient, mass transfer coefficient and modified Page model parameters were estimated by fitting the selected mathematical models to experimental data. High levels of correlation between measured and calculated data were obtained for all materials and dryers using modified Page model. The application of the Lewis and Fick's equation is justified only for drying of clay, catalyst and leather. Mass transfer coefficient depends linearly on the drying constant. The relation between the modified Page model parameter and the drying constant can be represented by a unique power function.     

Progress towards understanding the drying of porous materials wetted with binary mixtures

Drying of porous materials containing binary mixtures changes the composition of the moisture to a certain extent. Generally the more volatile component is removed preferentially, especially when the drying rate is low. At sufficiently high drying rates the moisture always evaporates with constant composition; the drying is nonselective. This effect is due to the liquid-side mass transfer resistance.Nonselective drying is also obtained when the moisture has a pseudo-azeotropic composition; this depends on the relative volatility, the gas-side mass transfer and the residence time of the gas in the dryer. If such a pseudo-azeotropic composition does exist, then even the less volatile component may be removed preferentially, provided the initial composition is above the pseudo-azeotropic one. The selectivity of the drying process also depends on the size of the drying sample as well as upon whether the drying process is run continuously or intermittently.The complex interactions of phase equilibria, gas- and liquid-side mass transfer and capillary flow for given drying conditions were analyzed first for the case of evaporation of binary mixtures from a free liquid surface and second for the case of drying single porous bodies containing binary mixtures. In both cases experimental results were obtained with mixtures of isopropyl alcohol and water. They confirm the phenomena and tendencies as predicted from theoretical considerations.     

多孔材料热风干燥过程中力学特性分析

为了得到高品质的干制品,基于黏弹性理论和Maxwell固体特性,建立了多孔材料干燥过程中黏弹性应力数学模型。采用MATLAB编程的方法对马铃薯热风干燥过程中内部各单元层干燥应力进行数值模拟计算。计算结果表明:随着干燥过程的进行马铃薯各单元层产生干燥应力为压应力且逐渐增大,达到最大值后开始减小;当压应力减小到0时出现应力反向现象,各单元层应力由压应力变成拉应力,拉应力逐渐增大到最大值后开始减小直至达到平衡不再发生变化。在整个热风干燥过程中干燥过程中,内单元层干燥应力值总是大于外单元层应力值,且表单元层的干燥应力始终为0。通过实验对模型进行验证,验证结果表明此模型可以用来表述干燥过程中多孔材料内部应力变化和分布规律。     

Mathematical model for spray drying

A mathematical model has been developed for dimensioning of spray driers. A critical moisture content which takes into consideration the solidifying of the surface of the particle has been introduced. In this way the model is applicable to porous particles. The model applies for changes in the transport coefficients.     

Generalized drying curves for porous solids

The purpose of this study is to obtain generalized drying curves which can be used in the prediction of drying times of porous solids in the falling-rate period. The drying model introduced assumes that the movement of moisture in the solid body is by capillary motion, and that the major resistance to heat and mass transfer lies on the boundary layer at the solid surface. It has been applied to the drying of gypsum particles of various sizes in a rotary dryer at different feed rates and gas temperatures. The results show that the deviation between the experimental data and the ones predicted from theory is very small. The deviation increases at low moisture concentrations which may indicate that internal resistance to moisture flow starts to dominate the drying phenomena.     

Low intensity convective drying of non-hygroscopic porous materials of high initial moisture content

The convective air drying of non-hygroscopic porous materials under low intensity and high moisture conditions is analysed. The variation of the moisture diffusivity with local moisture content is taken into account. The effects of the “dry” patches that develop on the product surface during the falling rate period are included. The concept of “enthalpy potential” is used to derive the coupled heat and mass transfer boundary condition at the product surface. Goodman's integral method is used to obtain the solution for the constant rate period. An iterative finite difference scheme is written to solve the heat and moisture transfer equations for the falling rate period. The results are presented in terms of seven dimensionless parameters for a particular case of linear variation of liquid diffusivity. The results show the trend that could be expected in drying practice.     

基于毛细理论的含湿多孔介质内水分迁移过程

基于含湿多孔介质的水分蒸发过程及其内部毛细管水分的蒸发特性和毛细孔隙的分布规律，讨论了含湿多孔介质中孔径分布对水分蒸发过程的影响，加深了对含湿多孔介质水分蒸发过程的物理机制的认识：在多孔介质的降速干燥阶段，蒸发过程只在介质内部的某一蒸发区间内进行。     

Effect of glutinous components on matrix microstructure during the drying process of plant porous materials

This paper compares the drying of two plant materials by microwave drying and hot air drying using Chinese angelica and Astragalus slices as examples, with the aim to study the influence of glutinous components in plant tissue on drying behavior of plant materials. In cases studied in this paper, the microwave drying time of Chinese angelica slices is reduced to 1/16 (50 min/810 min), that of Astragalus slices is reduced to 1/6 (30 min/180 min) as compared to hot air drying. The total pore volume of hot air dried Chinese angelica slices sample is 1.5 times of microwave dried sample, but that of microwave dried Astragalus slices sample is 2.5 times of hot air dried sample. In compare to microwave dried sample, the re-hydration ratio of hot air dried sample of Chinese angelica slices sample increases by 7.1%, but that of Astragalus slices sample decreases by 6.6%. This can be partly explained by the characteristics of pore size distribution inside matrix, resulted by the less deformation of glutinous component inside matrix during microwave drying process as compared to hot air drying. It is also confirmed that larger porosity and total volume of sample, higher re-hydration ratio of sample.     

Sensitivity analysis pertaining to effective parameters on electrohydrodynamic drying of porous shrinkable materials

Abstract

A phenomenological computational fluid dynamics model was developed to simulate drying process of a porous body using electric field corona discharge. The set of coupled nonlinear partial differential equations were solved simultaneously and compared with the experimental findings in the literature. The relative error of the corona wind velocity compared to the experiments was less than 1%. The main gradients of the EHD volume force and corona wind were close to the discharge electrode. Moreover, for no inlet air, the corona wind velocity and field distribution indicated the existence of vortices as the main factor for enhancing mass transfer during the drying process. At a constant air velocity, increase in the voltage caused increasing the corona velocity. In addition, by increasing the air velocity to some extent, the corona velocity first increased and then started to drop. As a result, for any voltage and electrode distance from the surface, an optimum air velocity could be determined. Due to the sweep impact of the primary air flow and moving the ionized molecules to the outside, the drying rates at air velocity of 1?m s^?1 were higher than those for air velocity of 1.5?m s^?1. Applying an intake air flow also altered the optimal electrode velocity from the surface due to the occurred change in the corona discharge. Therefore, is concluded that the severity of mass humidity changes is affected by the applied voltage, electrode distances from the surface, temperature, and the intake air velocity.     

Determining equivalent pore diameter for rigid porous spargers

Prediction of the properties of gas dispersions (e.g., bubble size) generated by porous spargers requires a knowledge of the pore diameter. Three methodologies for determination of an equivalent pore diameter D_e of a rigid SS sparger of the type used in column flotation have been developed. In the first, D_e is determined by fitting the bubble diameter predicted by the Kumar/Kuloor model to that measured. In the second, an estimation of bubble diameter is substituted. Estimation was tested using drift flux analysis and Molerus' uniform bubbling model: the former gave acceptable agreement with the measured. Fitting to the estimated bubble diameter offers a simplification over using the measured bubble diameter. The third approach was a further simplification. By combining the Kumar/Kuloor model with drift flux analysis, D_e is estimated by fitting predicted to measured gas holdup. The methodologies are evaluated on a set of SS spargers using water with a flotation frother, Dowforth 250C. All three methodologies give similiar estimates of D_e.     

An equation of drying kinetics for cementitious materials

Concrete structures are often subjected to drying in the natural environment. To simulate moisture transport in concrete during drying, a continuum model is commonly used, which generally requires the measured water vapor desorption isotherm as input data to address the equilibrium between liquid phase and water vapor at a given temperature. The main problem in measuring desorption isotherms is that the sample needs very long time to reach mass equilibrium at a certain relative humidity. To improve the method of measurement of sorption isotherms, we proposed to use Weibull equation to determine the mass loss at the infinite time. However, Weibull equation does not work well with the anomalous drying kinetics that were recently reported in the literature. In this paper, based on the theory of dual-porosity, a new equation is proposed by separating the moisture transport in the large and small pores to estimate the drying kinetics for cementitious materials. Fitting the drying kinetics measured by the dynamic vapor sorption analyzer shows that the newly developed equation has a very high capability for a large range of relative humidities, especially for the anomalous drying kinetics. This paper also demonstrates that using the proposed equation can reduce the duration of measuring desorption isotherms.     

纳米多孔材料的超临界干燥新技术

论述了超临界干燥的基本原理和实现凝胶超临界干燥操作的途径。讨论凝胶的超临界干燥操作步骤及时间。分析评述了高温超临界有机溶剂干燥、低温超临界CO2 干燥、低温超临界CO2 萃取干燥、惰性气体预加压超临界干燥和高温快速超临界反应干燥等几种新型超临界干燥操作方法及其特点。