You are on page 1of 4

Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Conference 2008 Hannover

Heat and Mass Transfer in Convective Drying Processes


Camelia Gavrila*,1, Adrian Gabriel Ghiaus2, Ion Gruia3
1,2
Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest, Faculty of Building Services, Romania
3
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Physics, Romania
*Camelia Gavrila: 66 Pache Protopopescu Blvd, Sector 2, 021414 Bucharest, Romania,
cgavrila2003@yahoo.com

Abstract: A dynamic mathematical model, • liquid transport due to capillary


based on physical and transport properties and forces,
mass and energy balances, was developed for the • vapour diffusion due to shrinkage and
simulation of unsteady convective drying of partial vapour-pressure gradients (Stefan’s
agricultural products (fruits and vegetables) in law),
static bed conditions. The local material- • liquid or vapour transport due to the
averaged drying rate and the heat flux depend on difference in total pressure caused by external
local air humidity and temperature, as well as pressure and temperature (Poiseuille’s law),
local mass and heat transfer coefficients in • evaporation and condensation effects
interaction with the moisture and temperature caused by differences in temperature,
distribution inside the material. The model • surface diffusion in liquid layers at the
utilizes water sorption isotherm equations and solid interface due to surface concentration
the change in solid density due to the shrinkage gradient,
phenomenon. The aim of this article is to • liquid transport due to gravity.
describe the modelling and simulation of the Additionally, moisture may also be
dehydration of grapes in a complex drying transported inside a material if a suitable
system processes, using COMSOL Multiphysics temperature gradient exists (thermo-gradient
Program. effect), because of thermodynamic coupling of
heat and mass transport processes.
Keywords: heat transfer, mass transfer Most foods are classified as capillary
convective drying processes, numerical model, porous rigid or capillary porous colloids, (Bruin,
COMSOL. 1980). Therefore, it is often proposed that a
combination of capillary flow and vapour
1. Introduction diffusion mechanisms should be used to describe
internal mass transfer.
Dehydration involves the simultaneous Water activity, rather than moisture
transfer of heat, mass and momentum in which content, influences biological reactions. In the
heat penetrates into the product and moisture is regions of water adsorption on polar sites or
removed by evaporation into an unsaturated gas when a mono-molecular layer exists, there is
phase. Owing to the complexity of the process, little enzyme activity. Enzyme activity begins
no generalized theory currently exists to explain only above the region of mono-molecular
the mechanism of internal moisture movement. adsorption. When the moisture content of a
Although it is now accepted that in most substrate is reduced below 10 %, micro-
practical situations of air drying of foods the organisms are no longer active. It is necessary
principal rate-determining step is internal mass however to reduce the moisture content to below
transfer, there is no agreement on the mechanism 5 % in order to preserve nutrition and flavour.
of internal moisture movement. In the case of
capillary-porous materials such as fruits and 2. Mathematical modelling of drying
vegetables, interstitial spaces, capillaries and
processes
gas-filled cavities exist within the food matrix
and water transport takes place via several
The simulation of various product drying
possible mechanisms acting in various
systems involves solving a set of heat and mass
combinations. The possible mechanisms
transfer equations which describe:
proposed by many workers include:
a) heat and moisture exchange between
• liquid diffusion caused by product and air,
concentration gradients,
b) adsorption and desorption rates of heat specific heat capacity; λ - thermal conductivity;
and moisture transfer,
Deff - effective mass diffusivity.
c) equilibrium relations between product
and air, These considerations lead to complex partial
d) psychometrics properties of moist air. differential equations for the moisture content
Attempts to describe the manner whereby and temperature fields inside the product. These
moisture is dislodged and evaporates from many equations incorporate transport coefficients
common materials involve formidable problems which must be determined experimentally, and
and analysis, and are usually tractable only for are strong functions of moisture content.
constant drying conditions. However, process
conditions almost always vary from place to 2.2 Modelling of agricultural product
place in a dryer and, in case of batch drying, they properties
also change with time. It is thus useful to
describe a body of comparatively simple Variability in composition and physical
structure, through which the movement of characteristics is typical for all food products.
moisture can be analyzed or experimentally For example, the composition of fruits and
modelled in a straightforward way, so that the vegetables depends on variety, location grown,
drying behaviour can be predicted for conditions climatic conditions, etc. For most engineering
more representative of those in commercial heat transfer calculations performed in
equipment. This procedure, although very commercial food dehydration, accuracy greater
approximate in a quantitative sense, nevertheless than 2-5 % is seldom needed. This is because
provides a number of important clues about errors due to varying or inaccurately measured
drying behaviour in general and strategies for boundary conditions such as air temperature and
process operation. velocity, would overshadow errors caused by
For air-drying of root vegetables (e.g. inaccurate thermal properties.
carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes), the core drying The best sources of thermal property data are
model, which formulates the relation between the prediction equations based on chemical
changes of the surface areas and moisture composition, temperature and physical structure
content, assumes the formation of a dried layer at (density, porosity, size and configuration of void
the outer side of the sample and the existence of spaces).
an un-dried core at the centre. This model was Most thermal property models are empirical
found to be in good agreement with the rather than theoretical, i.e. they are based on
experimental data. statistical curve fitting rather than theoretical
derivations involving heat transfer analysis. In
2.1 Simultaneous transport of heat and mass modelling, water is treated as a single, uniform
component of the food product. It could be
The most rigorous methods of describing the argued that the thermal properties of water in the
drying process are derived from the concepts of food depend on how it is configured or “bound”
irreversible thermodynamics in which the within the product.
various fluxes are taken to be directly
proportional to the appropriate “potential”, Table 1: The parameters used for the Corinthian
(Ghiaus, 1997). The mass balance inside the grapes
product can be written as:
∂(ρ b ⋅ X) ⎛ ∂X ⎞ Item Value
= div ⎜ ρ b ⋅ D eff ⋅ ⎟ (1)
∂t ⎝ ∂z ⎠
and the heat-energy balance can be set down as: Water content
75
W, %
∂T ⎛ ∂T ⎞
ρb ⋅ c ⋅ = div ⎜ λ ⋅ ⎟ (2) Thermal conductivity
∂t ⎝ ∂z ⎠ 0.5721
λ, W/m K
Where X - grape moisture content; T -the
air temperature; ρ b - bulk bed density; c -
Specific heat until the end of the process. During the first 5
3600 hours the temperature gradient is high and
c, J/kg K
corresponds to the so-called warm-up period of
Effective diffusion drying. During the next 25 hours the temperature
3.6·10-9 remains practically constant, and during the last
Deff, m2/s
period it starts to increase again. At the end of
bulk bed density the process, the temperature of the grapes
691
ρb kg/m3 reaches 42.5 °C.

3. Results and Discussion


40

The COMSOL Mutiphysics program is used to

Temperature, oC
simulate the dehydration of grapes in a complex 35

drying system processes which correspond to the


numerical solution of these model equations. The 30

above system of non-linear Partial Differential surface of grape bed


average
Equations, together with the already described 25 bottom of grape bed

set of initial and boundary conditions, has been 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35


Time, h
solved by Finite Elements Method implemented
by Comsol Multiphysics 3.4. We build the Figure 2. Evolution of grape temperature during the
geometry of the model, and then we fixed the drying process.
boundary settings, the mesh parameters and
compute the final solution (Figure 1) Figure 3 presents the evolution of grape moisture
content at the surface and bottom of the bed and
as an average value. It can be seen that during
the whole process the moisture content of the
grapes is uniform within the bed thickness. This
is due also to the small thickness of the grape
bed.

3.0
surface of grape bed
average
2.5
Moisture content, kg/kg-db

bottom of grape bed

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Figure 1. Results from the compute solution in Time, h

COMSOL Multiphysics.
Figure 3. Evolution of grape moisture content during
Figure 2 shows graphically the evolution of the drying process.
grape temperature during the drying process, at
the surface and bottom of the bed and as an One of the most important drying parameters
average. the predicted drying time was calculated is the drying rate (Figure 4) which represents the
to be 38 hours and 21 minutes during which the rate of evaporated water from one square meter
grapes are dried from 75 % moisture content - of drying product. At the beginning of the
wet basis to 15 % moisture content - wet basis. process the drying rate increases from 0.06 g/s
Differences of temperature between the base m2 to 0.12 g/s m2 and then has a very small
and surface of the bed appear only during the decreasing slope. At the end of the process the
first period of drying, approx. the first 5 hours. drying rate decreases rapidly.
After this the bed temperature remains uniform
0.14 4. Conclusions
0.13

In this paper, we have demonstrated the


0.12
Drying rate, g/s m2

0.11

0.10 versatility of COMSOL Multyphisics with


0.09

0.08
regard to the modelling and simulation of the
0.07 dehydration of grapes in a complex drying
0.06
system processes. The model was applied to the
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Time, h full scale experimental data with good results.
Figure 4. Drying rate vs. drying time for grape
dehydration. 5. References

As the heat exchangers processes do not involve 1. Ghiaus A.-G., Margaris D.P. and Papanikas
mass (water vapors) transfer, the absolute D.G., Mathematical modelling of the convective
humidity values of the preheated air are equal to drying of fruits and vegetables, Journal of Food
those of the ambient air, the values of exhaust air Science, An international journal of the Institute
are the same as those of the air at the outlet of of Food Technologists, 62, 1154-1157, (1997).
the drying room and also, the values are identical 2. Ghiaus C.-M. and Ghiaus A.-G., Evaluation of
at the inlet and outlet of the main heat exchanger. the indoor temperature field using a given air
Drying air parameters are predicted at velocity distribution, Building and Environment
characteristic points of the system: inlet of the The International Journal of Building Science
fresh air into the economizers (ambient air), and its Applications, 34, 671-679, (1999).
outlet of the economizers onto the fresh air path 3. Hernàndez, J.A., Pavòn, G., Garcìa, M.A.,
(preheated fresh air), inlet of the main heat Analytical Solution of Mass Transfer Equation
exchanger (the mixing between preheated and Journal of Food Engineering, 45, 1-10, (2000).
recycled air), inlet and outlet of the drying room, 4. Wu, Y., & Irudayaraj, J., Analysis of Heat,
and the outlet of the economizers onto the Mass and Pressure Transfer in Starch Based
exhaust air path. Evolution of drying air Food Systems, Journal of Food Engineering, 29,
temperature is given in Figure 5 and the relative 399-414, (1996).
humidity of the drying air in Figure 6. 5. Ikediala, J.N., Correira, L.R., Fenton , G.A., &
Abdallah, N.B., Finite Element Modelling of
70 inlet drying room
Heat Transfer in Meat Patties During Single-
65 outlet drying room
inlet heat exchanger
Sided Pan-Frying, Journal of Food Science, 61,
60
796-802, (1996).
Temperature, oC

55

50 6. Morgan, M.T., & Okos, M.R., Effects of


45

40
Microwave on the Drying, Checking and
35
preheated
exhaust Mechanical Strength of Baked Biscuits Journal
30

25
ambient
of Food Engineering, 50, 63-75, (2001).
0 5 10 15 20
Time, h
25 30 35
7. Wang, N., Brennan, J.G., A Mathematical
Model of Simultaneous Heat and Moisture
Figure 5. Drying air temperature at different locations Transfer During Drying of Potato, Journal of
vs. drying time.
Food Engineering, 24, 47-60, (1995).
8. Kalbasi, M., Mehraban, M.R., The Effect of
70
exhaust
ambient
Surface Water Vapour Flux on Drying of Potato,
60
outlet drying room Journal Trans IChemE, 78, Part C, (2000).
Relative humidity, %

50

40 inlet heat exchanger


preheated
6. Acknowledgements
30 inlet drying room

20
This work was supported by Technical
10
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 University of Civil Engineering Bucharest under
Time, h
the CEEX contract No 73/2006, project director:
Figure 5. Relative humidity of drying air at different Assoc. Prof. Adrian-Gabriel GHIAUS, Ph.D.
locations vs. drying time.

You might also like