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Procedia Engineering 170 (2017) 516 – 519

Engineering Physics International Conference, EPIC 2016

Influence of Air Temperature and Velocity for Drying Process

Raka Noveriyan Putra1, Tri Ayodha Ajiwiguna1*
1
Engineering Physics Department, Telkom University
*
Email : triayodha@telkomuniversity.ac.id

Abstract

One of the important treatment of some farm products is drying process. Blowing the hot air to the object is the most common method of this
process thus water contained is evaporated. In this study, the influence of air temperature and velocity to the evaporation rate is experimentally
investigated. Small duct equipped with controlled air heater element and fan is built to set the air temperature and velocity respectively.
Thermocouple and digital anemometer are placed for measurement of the air temperature and velocity. The evaporation rate of water
contained is then measured for one hour process. The result shows that the higher air temperature and velocity increase the evaporation rate.
However, the gradient of evaporation rate by temperature tends to decrease from 0.46 gram/oC to 0.2 gram/oC. Contrarily, the gradient is
increased by velocity from 5 gram/(m/s) to 9 gram/(m/s). Based on this fact, it can be concluded that the effect of temperature is less
significant at high air velocity.
© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the Engineering Physics International Conference 2016
Keywords: Drying process; evaporation rate; air velocity; air temperature.

1. Introduction

As an agricultural country, Indonesia harvests various farm products such as rice, tobacco, ricinus, sorghum, etc. Drying
process is one of the most ancient method of food preservation [1]. The purpose of drying process is to reduce the water content
in the producst so that the environment is not suitable for micro-organisms reproduction [2-4]. Dry farm products have
advantages in which the product is preserved, lighter, and easier for distribution [5]. Conventional method of drying process
farm products is sunbathing where the solar radiation strikes the products directly. However, this method is not effective when
the condition is not conducive such as rainy season, therefore artificial drying process is needed [6]. Blowing the hot air to the
product is the most common method of artificial drying process [7]. Higher temperature of air has larger capacity of water vapor
so that the evaporation rate from the product is increased [8].
Krokida et al studied the effect of air temperature for drying process and concluded that the drying constant and the
equilibrium moisture content of the dehydrated product increases with temperature. For the examined cases, the temperature of
the drying air was the most important factor affecting the drying rate [9]. Babalis et al studied the influence of the drying
conditions on the drying constants and moisture diffusivity during the thin-layer drying of figs and showed that air velocities
greater than 2 m/s has no significant effect on the drying rate. It was concluded that the drying kinetics is most significantly
affected by the air temperature [10].
The objective of this research is to investigate the influence of air velocity and temperature in drying process. The dryer
system is first built with the blower and heater element to set the temperature and velocity of air respectively. Evaporation rate of
water content in the wet object is then observed in the specific duration of time and the result is analyzed.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +62 227564108
E-mail address:triayodha@telkomuniversity.ac.id

1877-7058 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the Engineering Physics International Conference 2016
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2017.03.082
 Raka Noveriyan Putra and Tri Ayodha Ajiwiguna / Procedia Engineering 170 (2017) 516 – 519 517

Fig. 1 Photos of experimental setup

2. Experimental Setup

The experiment was conducted by setting the air temperature and velocity using dryer system. The construction of the system
consisted of duct with the dimension of 9 x 9 cm cross sectional area with 30 cm of length. Blower was placed at one end of the
duct and two air heater elements were placed inside the duct, shown in figure 1.
The scheme of experimental setup is shown in figure 2. The output air velocity and temperature were measured
simultaneously by using thermocouple and digital anemometer. Wet object with certain mass was placed in front of the duct
output. The mass of wet object was measured every ten minutes in one hour duration. Evaporation rate is calculated by the
following equation:


(1)

where

is the speciment mass before drying process,


is the speciment mass after drying process, and t is drying time. The
experiment were carried out under different air velocity from 1.6 m/s to 2.8 m/s with the increment of 0.4 m/s. The temperatures
were set at 30 oC to 45 oC.

Fig. 2 Scehme of experimental Setup

3. Results and discussion

The temperature dependence of evaporation rate is shown in figure 3. The result shows that evaporation rate is increased at
higher air temperature and velocity. Molecule volume of air is expanded by increasing the temperature. It causes the capacity of
air to absorb water vapor is increased. However, its gradient tends to decrease at higher temperature. It means the evaporation
rate tends to be saturated at constant velocity and high temperature.
518 Raka Noveriyan Putra and Tri Ayodha Ajiwiguna / Procedia Engineering 170 (2017) 516 – 519

Tempererture Dependence of Evaporation Rate

20
18
16
  
 

 
   

14
2.8 m/s
12
2.4 m/s
10
2 m/s
8
1.6 m/s
6
4
2
0
28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46
Temperature (Celsius)

Fig. 3 Influence of air drying temperatures and velocities on the evaporation rate

Figure 4 and 5 shows the mass of wet object during drying process. The mass is decreased since water content is evaporated.
The mass reducing tends to be steady state at long duration of drying process. It indicates that the evaporation is more difficult if
the water content is low. At 1.6 m/s of air velocity the curves of each temperatures is almost similar while the difference is very
clear at 2.8 m/s. Gradient of evaporation rate by temperature tends to decrease from 0.46 gram/oC to 0.2 gram/oC. Contrarily, the
gradient is increased by velocity from 5 gram/(m/s) to 9 gram/(m/s). Based on this fact, it can be concluded that the effect of
temperature is less significant at high air velocity. The basic principle of drying process is to transport water vapor from wet
object to the air. Velocity of air is proportional to the mass flow rate of air. At higher mass flow rate, the capacity increase since
a lot of amount of air.

Velocity of 1.6 m/s

40
Mass of wet object (gram)

35

30 30 Celsius
25 35 Celsius
40 Celsius
20 45 Celsius
15

10
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Duration of Drying (Minute)

Fig. 4 Mass reducing of wet object at 1.6 m/s during one hour process
 Raka Noveriyan Putra and Tri Ayodha Ajiwiguna / Procedia Engineering 170 (2017) 516 – 519 519

Velocity of 2.8 m/s

40

35
Mass of wet object (Gram)

30
30 Celsius
25 35 Celsius
40 Celsius
20 45 Celsius

15

10
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Duration of drying (Minutes)

Fig. 5 Mass reducing of wet object at 2.8 m/s during one hour process

4. Conclusion

In this study, the apparatus to investigate the influence of air temperature and velocity is built and the experiment is
performed. The increasing of temperature and velocity causes higher evaporation rate. However the effect of temperature is less
significant at high temperature. The evaporation rate is high at initial process while it tends to decrease during the process. It is
concluded that the evaporation process needs more energy when the water contained in the object is low.

References

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