Airflow and temperature distribution in two-dimensional drying bins

The design of a drying or cooling store aims to provide an even airflow dis tribution, when aerated, for preservation purposes. The airflow in some cur ved bottom bins are studied in this paper. The flow is modelled, using Darc y's law. A generalized Schwarz-Christoffel transformation is employed to re duce the problem of computing streamlines and isobars of airflow to solving a single nonlinear equation for the flow angle along the wall. Correspondi ng to different bin shapes, a few computed streamlines and isobars of airfl ow are presented, showing the effect of changing bottom geometries on the a ir flow. Heat transfer in such bins is also investigated. Based on an analy sis of the far field of airflow, finite-height bins are considered. Analyti cal solutions of the heat conduction equation in terms of streamlines and i sobars are obtained.