HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER IN IMPINGEMENT DRYING

In industrial drying applications, efficient transfer of heat and mass between a drying medium and the material being dried is very critical for the overall economics of the operation. Impinging jets are therefore widely used for their enhanced tmnsport characteristics, especially for drying of continuous sheets of materials such as paper and textiles. In such applications, a thin sheet of material, as wide as 6m in cross machine direction, speeds at velocities as high as 90 km/hr under high velocity jets emerging from a confining surface parallel to the material surface. Many variables and effects need to k considered for proper design of such impinging jet systems: nozzle geometry and size, nozzle configuration, location of exhaust pons, nozzle-to-surface separation, jet-to-jet separation, cross flow, jet exit velocity and surface motion. For permeable materials, additional enhancement of heat and mass transfer that occur when some of the impinging gas is removed through the material makes this option an atmctive one.

Here, we review the above effects and offer predictive correlations from literature which may be used in the design of high velocity impinging jet systems.