RATE OF DRYING AND STRESSES IN THE FIRST PERIOD OF DRYING

The paper presents a computer simulated processes and illustrate how the drying induced stresses are influenced by the rate of drying. It is shown that the moisture transport coefficient, and thus the rate of drying, depends on the thermal state of the drying material, defined by the wet-bulb temperature. Through these simulated processes one can observe the evolution of the moisture content and stress distributions during drying at constant, but in each process different, wet-bulb temperatures. A convective drying process of a bar with rectangular cross-section is considered as example, and a two-dimensional initial-boundary value problem is solved numerically with the use of the finite element method. The numerical results are visualised in spatial diagrams.