Heat and mass transfer during microwave‐convective drying

The article presents a mathematical model of drying that describes the kinetics of combined microwave‐convective drying for the process as a whole. Based on this model, the drying curves and the temperature evolutions of the drying body were constructed by a number of computer‐simulated drying programs, which were chosen to follow the respective experimental processes carried out on a cylindrical sample made of kaolin. The experimental data allowed both the estimate of material coefficients arising in the model and the validation of the theory. A very satisfactory correlation of the theoretical predictions with the experimental data is found. The main novelty of this article is the mathematically complete drying model that describes all periods of the microwave‐convective drying process. Application of such a complete model is necessary if we want to optimize drying processes with respect to drying time and consumption of energy via computer simulations. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2009