Principle and Applications of Drying Characteristic Functions

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the concept of a ‘drying characteristic function,’ which is an effective way to correlate drying rate curves for convective drying of homogeneous nonporous, hygroscopic porous and non-hygroscopic porous materials. The characteristic function, obtained bv a certain transformation of a drying rate curve, is independent of drying conditions and hence characterizes the transport kinetics in the material. The principle and some applications of the functions are reviewed. The first application is estimation of dryinge rate curves. Because any drying rate curve can be transformed into the characteristic function and vice versa, the drying rate can be estimated for various drying conditions from a single drying experiment. Another aoolication is determination of the moisture diffusivity. Using the ‘flux ratio method’ an analytical expression of the characteristic function can be obtained for any aiven moisture diffusivity. The exprcssion enables one to determine the moisture diffusivity for a wide range of moisture content from a single drying experiment.