AN EFFICIENT SIMULATION OF THE HEAT AND MASS-TRANSFER PROCESSES DURING DRYING OF CAPILLARY-POROUS, HYGROSCOPIC MATERIALS

The optimization of drying processes as well as the design of drying e quipment can be accomplished by computer simulation. In order to predi ct the drying behavior of capillary porous, hygroscopic materials a nu merical model simulating the convective heat and mass transfer and an efficient method in determining the coefficients for the moisture cond uctivity and the vapor diffusion resistance by an inverse procedure ar e introduced. For demonstrating the efficacy of the simulation model a s well as the inverse procedure the theoretical predictions of the sim ulation model derived for steady and time dependent drying conditions are compared with experimental data. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. Al l rights reserved.