Food and Bioproducts Processing 1 1 7 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 360–372

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Food and Bioproducts Processing

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fbp

Simulation and experimental studies of heat and

mass transfer in corn kernel during hot air drying

Shuo Wei a , Zhenhua Wang b , Fenghe Wang a , Weijun Xie a ,

Pengxiao Chen a , Deyong Yang a,∗
a College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100083, China
b School of Food and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing, 100048, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This research involved the three-dimensional drying models of corn kernels that were
Received 26 May 2019 developed based on one-component homogeneity (OH), multi-component heterogeneity of
Received in revised form 1 August moisture diffusion coefficient (MD) and multi-component heterogeneity of initial moisture
2019 content and moisture diffusion coefficient (MMD), respectively. Simulation results were fully
Accepted 8 August 2019 evaluated by the experiments of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and infrared
Available online 14 August 2019 thermal imaging. Results showed that MMD model could accurately describe the temper-
ature and moisture distribution in different components during drying. Germ had higher
Keywords: moisture content and lower temperature than endosperm. The larger moisture and heat
Multi-component flux around germ resulted in higher drying rate of germ than that of endosperm. Although
Moisture transfer moisture transfer from germ to endosperm delayed its drying, the endosperm still domi-
Temperature distribution nated the drying of corn kernel. The results provided a better option for accurate prediction
Drying model of moisture and temperature distribution inside corn kernels during drying process.
MRI © 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Institution of Chemical Engineers.
Corn kernels

1. Introduction changes of moisture distribution in grain kernels (Neményi et al., 2000;

Drying is one of the main approaches used to preserve postharvest
grains, since wet grains create suitable conditions for grain pests,
mildew and germination (Mendoza et al., 2017). The rough drying oper-
ation usually leads to quality deterioration (Kumar and Kalita, 2017).
A typical problem of grain drying is that grain kernels develop cracks
due to the large moisture gradient (Ghasemi et al., 2018; Dong et al.,
2009). Studying the moisture and temperature distribution inside grain
kernels helps to elaborate suitable drying methods.
Many studies have developed drying models based on one-
component assumption to describe temperature and moisture
distribution inside grain kernels during drying (Jia et al., 2000; Srisang
et al., 2016). However, the simulation results are often unsatisfactory
(Huang et al., 2017), since grain kernels are usually composed of com-
plex components and heterogeneous structure (Kovács and Neményi,
1999; Ghosh et al., 2006, 2007). As expected, the mathematical drying
models based on two-component assumption can better reflect the
∗
Corresponding author.
phenomenon.
E-mail address: ydy@cau.edu.cn (D. Yang).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fbp.2019.08.006
0960-3085/© 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Institution of Chemical Engineers.
Janas et al., 2010; Ghosh et al., 2008).
Comparing with rice and wheat, the structure and composition
of corn kernel are more diverse, which usually contain four main
components named pericarp, hard endosperm, soft endosperm and
germ (Pomeranz, 1987). In the previous studies on moisture diffu-
sion capacity of corn, it was reported that there were significant
differences in moisture diffusion coefficients among pericarp, hard
endosperms endosperm, soft endosperm and germ (Syarief et al., 1987;
Muthukumarappan and Gunasekaran, 1994). Chen et al. (2009) used
an optimization algorithm to accurately estimate the relationship of
moisture diffusion coefficient with drying temperature and moisture
content from experimental drying data of the four components. On
this basis, Takhar (2011a), Takhar et al. (2011b); Huang et al. (2017)
and Zhao et al. (2018) developed the mathematical models based on
multi-component heterogeneity with moisture diffusion coefficient of
corn kernels, which provided accurate information for predicting mois-
ture transfer in corn kernels during drying. However, the effects of
moisture content on the thermal conductivity and diffusion coeffi-
cient were not fully taken into account due to the initial moisture
content of corn kernels with uniform distribution in their works, and
there was also no effective simulation and verification of heat transfer
 Food and Bioproducts Processing 1 1 7 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 360–372 361

2. Materials and methods

Nomenclature
2.1. Materials
Ca Specific heat of drying medium (J/(kg K))
Cp Specific heat (J/(kg K)) Corn (Variety Xianyu) kernels were harvested from a farm in
D Equivalent diameter of corn kernel (m) Hebei, China. The materials were carefully selected without
Da Diffusion coefficient of moisture in drying insect damage. The initial moisture content of corn kernels
medium (m2 /s) was 0.38 ± 0.02 in dry basis (d.b.) measured by the oven-drying
Di Moisture diffusion coefficients of different method (AOAC, 2000). All the corn kernels were stored in
components (m2 /s), i = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, which repre- sealed bags at 4 ◦ C before tests.
sent the corn kernel, pericarp, hard endosperm,
soft endosperm and germ, respectively
2.2. Drying experiment
DR Average drying rate during the period of t1 -t2
(kg/(kg min))
Samples were spread in a single layer on stainless steel wire
hg Latent heat of vaporization (J/kg)
grid in the drying chamber (HBO-DR-1220-BX-801, Shanghai
hm Convective moisture transfer coefficient (m/s)
Zhangjin Hot Blower Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China). The drying
ht Convective heat transfer coefficient (W/(m2 K))
temperature was set at 60 ◦ C. The probe of a multifunction air
hw Latent heat of vaporization of water (J/kg)
meter (Testo 435, Testo SE & CO. KGaA, Lenzkirch, Germany)
k Thermal conductivity (W/(m K))
was placed near the surface of corn kernels to measure the
ka Thermal conductivity of drying medium
relative humidity and air velocity at steady state condition.
(W/(m K))
Their average values were 12% and 0.6 m/s, respectively.
m Mass (kg)
The moisture content of corn kernel, germ and endosperm
mi Mass of corn kernel at time ti (kg), i = 1, 2
(including pericarp) was measured by the oven-drying
mei Mass of endosperm at time ti (kg), i = 1, 2
method (AOAC, 2000), where germ and endosperm were
mgi Mass of germ at time ti (kg), i = 1, 2
separated from the corn kernels by a dissecting knife.
Nu Nusselt number
Moisture distribution in corn kernels was measured by a
Pr Prandtl number
low field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging Analyzer
Pe Dehydration ratio of endosperm with pericarp
(NiuStel-2, Shanghai Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., Shang-
(%)
hai, China), where the multiple spin echo imaging sequence
Pg Dehydration ratio of germ (%)
parameters were followed: Field of view = 100 × 100 mm2 ,
Re Reynolds number
repetition time (TR) = 500 ms, echo time (TE) = 20 ms, slice
RH Relative humidity of drying medium (decimal)
thickness (SW) = 2.5 mm, number of sampling times (NS) = 4,
Sh Sherwood number
matrix = 256 × 256.
Sc Schmidt number
The temperature of corn kernels was monitored with an
T Temperature (K)
eight-channel fiber optical temperature sensor system (Umi8,
T0 Initial temperature (K)
Fiso Technologies Inc., Quebec, Canada, accuracy ± 0.01 ◦ C).
Ta Temperature of drying medium (K)
The surface temperature distribution of corn kernels was
t Time, (min) or (s)
determined by an infrared camera (Ti55FT, Fluke Electronic
X Moisture content (decimal, d.b.)
Instruments Company, Washington, USA, accuracy ± 0.01 ◦ C).
Xe Equilibrium moisture content (decimal, d.b.)
Xi Initial moisture content of different compo-
nents (decimal, d.b.), i = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, which 2.3. Drying parameters
represent the corn kernel, pericarp, hard
endosperm, soft endosperm and germ, respec- 2.3.1. Drying rate
Xt − Xt2
tively DR = 1 (1)
t1 − t2
Xti Moisture content at time ti (decimal, d.b.), i = 1,
2
where DR (kg/(kg min)) is the average drying rate of corn ker-
ua Velocity of drying medium (m/s)
nel during the drying period of t1 -t2 ; Xt1 and Xt2 (d.b.) are the
a Dynamic viscosity of drying medium (Pa/s)
moisture content at drying time t1 and t2 , respectively.
 Density (kg/m3 )
a Density of drying medium (kg/m3 )
2.3.2. Dehydration ratio
During the drying process, the ratio of moisture dehydrated
from endosperm or germ to that from corn kernel can be cal-
culated by the following formula:
In this paper, three drying models of corn kernels were devel-
⎧ me1 − me2
oped based on the assumptions of one-component homogeneity (OH),
⎪
⎪ Pe = × 100%
multi-component heterogeneity of moisture diffusion coefficient (MD), ⎪
⎨ m1 − m2
multi-component heterogeneity of initial moisture content and mois- m
g1 −m
g2 (2)
Pg = × 100%
ture diffusion coefficient (MMD), respectively. The simulated results ⎪
⎪ m1 − m2
⎪
⎩
were fully tested by the experiments of nuclear magnetic resonance
Pe + Pg = 1
imaging (NMR) and infrared thermal imaging. It aims to reveal the heat
and mass transfer of different components in corn kernels, predict the
change and distribution of moisture and temperature, and optimize where Pe and Pg are dehydration ratio of endosperm (including
the drying process for corn drying. pericarp) and germ, respectively; me1 , me2 , mg1 mg2 , m1 , and m2
362 Food and Bioproducts Processing 1 1 7 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 360–372

are the mass of endosperm, germ and corn kernel at drying

time t1 and t2, respectively.

2.4. Drying simulation

2.4.1. Assumptions
The following assumptions were made for developing the
solution scheme for the mass and heat transport equation of
corn kernels:

(1) The initial temperature of corn kernels was uniformly dis-

tributed.
(2) The shrinkage of corn kernels during drying was not taken
into account.
(3) The moisture diffuses from the inner of corn kernel to its
surface and then vaporizes.
(4) The temperature, relative humidity and velocity of hot air
around corn kernels keep constant during drying.

2.4.2. Geometric model

The geometric model of corn kernel was constructed based
on the corn seed with regular shape and average size.
The edge contour and geometry parameters (length, width,
height) of pericarp, hard endosperm, soft endosperm and
germ were extracted by dissection (Fig. 1). Their 3D geometry
were constructed by the Pro/Engineer 5.0 software (Paramet-
ric Technology Corporation, Massachusetts, USA), and some
edges were smoothed reasonably during the geometric model-
ing process. One-component geometry and multi-component
geometry of corn kernel were constructed by assembling and
merging geometry of all components. Only 1/2 3D geometry
of corn kernel was used in simulation, since the structure of
corn kernel is symmetrical in width direction (Fig. 2). The cross
section was set as symmetrical boundary during the simula-
tion. The number of tetrahedral elements developed in the 1/2
one-component geometry was 25,470 while satisfying certain
constraints of the maximum cell size of 0.25 mm and growth Fig. 1 – Geometric modeling process of corn kernel. (a), (b)
rate of 1.2. The number of tetrahedral elements developed in and (c) were the three views of germ. (d), (e) and (f) were the
the pericarp, hard endosperm, soft endosperm and germ in 1/2 constructed geometry of the embryo. (g), (h) and (i) were the
multi-component geometry was 23485, 47673, 18145, 10943, cross sections of corn kernel. (j), (k) and (l) were the cross
respectively. The volume parameters of the corn geometry sections of corn geometry. (m) and (n) were the pericarp
which were selected in this study are shown in Table 1. and its constructed geometry.

2.4.3. Heat transport equation

The heat transfer inside the corn kernel can be described by The latent heat of vaporization (hg ) of corn kernel is calcu-
Fourier’s law of heat conduction as: lated by the following formula (Cao and Zhu, 2001):
 
∂T ∂2 T ∂2 T ∂2 T ∂X hg = hw (1 + 0.8953exp(−12.32X)) (5)
Cp =k + 2 + 2 + hg  (3)
∂t ∂x2 ∂y ∂z ∂t

where hw (J/kg) is the latent heat of vaporization of water.

where  (kg/m3 ) is the density of corn kernel; Cp (J/(kg K)) is the
specific heat of corn kernel; T (K) is the temperature; t (s) is the
time; k (W/(m K)) is the thermal conductivity of corn kernel; hg
(J/kg) is the latent heat of vaporization of corn kernel; and X
(d.b.) is the moisture content.
Initial and boundary conditions:
2.4.4. Convective heat transfer coefficient
The following formula is used to calculate the convective heat
transfer coefficient (ht ) of corn kernel assuming external flow
past a spheroid analogy (Yang and Tao, 2006):

⎧ ⎧ 1 2
⎨ t = 0, T = T0 ⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ Nu = ht d = 2 + (0.4Re 2 + 0.06Re 3 )Pr0.4
(4) ⎪
⎪
⎩ −k ∂T = ht (T − Ta ) ⎪
⎨ ka
∂t
ua a d (6)
⎪
⎪ Re =
where T0 (K) is the initial temperature of corn kernels; Ta (K) ⎪
⎪ a
⎪
⎪
is the temperature of drying medium; and ht (W/(m2 K)) is the ⎪ Pr = a Ca
⎩ 
convective heat transfer coefficient of corn kernel. ka
 Food and Bioproducts Processing 1 1 7 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 360–372 363

Fig. 2 – Meshed geometry of 1/2 corn kernel.

Table 1 – Volume parameters of different components in corn geometry.

Kernel Germ Hard endosperm Soft endosperm Pericarp

Volume/mm3 450.58 69.76 252.60 117.46 10.76

Volume ratio 1.00 0.16 0.56 0.26 0.02

Table 2 – Thermo-physical parameters of corn kernels.

Parameter Value (or equation) Reference

 (kg/m3 ) 1240
Cp (J/(kg K)) 1470 + 3600X/(1+X) Jumah (2005)
k (W/(m/K)) 1.33 × 105 T2 +0.5964X2 −9.32 × 10−3 T−2.273X + 7.633 × 10−3 TX+1.706 Fig. 3
D0 (m2 /s) 7.817 × 10−5 exp(−4850/T)exp(5.5X) Huang et al. (2017)
D1 (m2 /s) 6.6 × 10−6 exp(−3752.2/T)X1.5 Chen et al. (2009)
D2 (m2 /s) 4.08 × 10−6 exp(−2506.6/T)X1.5 Chen et al. (2009)
D3 (m2 /s) 9.65 × 10−7 exp(−1588.1/T)X1.5 Chen et al. (2009)
D4 (m2 /s) 8.79 × 10−6 exp(−3020.2/T)X1.5 Chen et al. (2009)

where Nu is the Nusselt number; d (m) is the equivalent diam- where Xi is the initial moisture content of different compo-
eter of corn kernel; ka (W/(m K)) is the thermal conductivity nents in corn kernel, and Di (m2 /s) is the moisture diffusion
of drying medium; Re is the Reynolds number; Pr is the Prandtl coefficients of different components in corn kernel, i = 0,
number; ua (m/s) is the velocity of drying medium; a (kg/m3 ) 1, 2, 3, 4, which represent the corn kernel, pericarp, hard
is the density of drying medium; a (Pa/s) is the dynamic vis- endosperm, soft endosperm and germ, respectively. hm (m/s)
cosity of drying medium; and Ca (J/(kg K)) is the specific heat is the convective moisture transfer coefficient of corn ker-
of drying medium. nel; and Xe (d.b.) is the equilibrium moisture content of corn
kernel.
2.4.5. Moisture transport equation The equilibrium moisture content of corn kernels is calcu-
The moisture diffusion in corn kernel can be described by lated by the following formula (Jumah, 2005):
Fick’s law:
 
∂X ∂2 X ∂2 X ∂2 X
= Di + 2 + 2 (7)
∂t ∂x 2 ∂y ∂z   1.8634
1
−ln (1 − RH)
Xe = (9)
Initial and boundary conditions: 8.654 × 10−5 (Ta + 49.81)
⎧
⎨ t = 0, X = Xi
(8)
⎩ −D1 ∂X = hm (X − Xe )
∂t where RH is the relative humidity of drying medium.
364 Food and Bioproducts Processing 1 1 7 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 360–372

2.4.6. Convective moisture transfer coefficient

The following formula is used to calculate the convective
moisture transfer coefficient (ht) of corn kernel assuming
external flow past a spheroid analogy (Hii et al., 2013):

⎧ 1 1
⎪
⎪
⎨ Sh = hm d
= 2 + 0.552Re 2 Sc 3
Da (10)
⎪
⎪
⎩ Sc = a
a Da

where Sh is the Sherwood number; Da (m2 /s) is the diffusion

coefficient of moisture in drying medium; and Sc is the Schmidt
number.

2.4.7. Model parameters

The thermo-physical parameters used to solve the heat and
mass transfer equations of corn drying models are shown in
Table 2. Thermal conductivity of corn kernels was measured by
a thermal conductivity analyzer (HFM 436 Lambda, NETZSCH
GABO Instruments GmbH, Selb, Germany), The dependence of
thermal conductivity on moisture content and temperature of
corn kernels is shown in Fig. 3.
2.5. Data analysis
A finite element software (COMSOL Multi-physics 5.3a,
Burlington, MA, USA), run by a Samsung computer with Core
Fig. 3 – Dependence of thermal conductivity for corn
kernels on moisture content and temperature.
i5 processors, 8 GB RAM on a Windows 7 64 bit operating
system, was used to solve the heat and mass transfer equa-
tions in this study. The direct linear solver (MUMPS) was used
with a relative tolerance and absolute tolerance of 0.01 and
0.001, respectively. As the error gradually decreased to the
desired calculation error, the average calculation time of OH,
MD and MMD with one-minute time step was 9 min, 23 min
and 28 min, respectively. Experimental and simulated data
were analyzed by Origin Pro 2018 software (Origin Lab Cor-

Fig. 4 – Drying kinetics of corn kernel, endosperm and germ (endosperm includes pericarp).
 Food and Bioproducts Processing 1 1 7 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 360–372
poration, Massachusetts, USA). All the statistical significant
comparisons were made at a significance level of P = 0.05.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Drying kinetics of corn kernels
The drying curves of corn kernel, endosperm and germ are
shown in Fig. 4(a), the initial moisture content of germ was
almost twice as much as that of endosperm. The moisture
content of germ was higher than that of endosperm during
drying, and the difference between the moisture content of
germ and endosperm gradually reduced.
The drying rate of corn kernel and its components
(endosperm and germ) decreased as moisture content reduced
(Fig. 4(b)), the drying rate of germ was higher than that of
endosperm, whereas that from the germ showed two dis-
tinct falling rates of drying. Similar results have been reported
by Ghosh et al. (2007) for drying of wheat kernel. This phe-
nomenon may be caused by the more moisture transfer from
germ to endosperm due to their larger moisture gradient
during the early stage of drying. As shown in Fig. 4(c), the dehy-
dration ratio of endosperm was more than 62% during drying
process, which indicated that the loss of moisture in corn ker-
nel mainly came from endosperm, where endosperm played
a leading role in the drying process of corn kernel mainly due
Fig. 5 – Comparison between simulated and experimental data of moisture content in corn kernel and its components
during drying.
365
to its larger absolute moisture content than germ. The dehy-
dration ratio of endosperm declined rapidly in the initial stage
of drying and slowly in the later stage, it may be attributed to
moisture transfer from germ to endosperm.
3.2. Verification of moisture content prediction
Fig. 5(a) compares the simulation results of OH, MD and MMD
for the moisture content in the corn kernel. The deviation
between experimental and simulated values of OH was larger
than that of MD and MMD, since moisture diffusion coeffi-
cient of OH was a comprehensive parameter for evaluating the
moisture diffusion ability of corn kernel, which was probably
affected by the volume and mass ratio of different components
in corn kernel due to the difference of their moisture diffu-
sion. For example, the diffusion ability of hard endosperm was
proved to be smaller (Chen et al., 2009), if corn kernels with
large volume ratio of hard endosperm were used as exper-
imental materials, a smaller moisture diffusion coefficient
of corn kernel would be detected. Therefore, the simulated
values and experimental values of MD or MMD have high coin-
cidence, which was in agreement with the results obtained by
Huang et al. (2017). Simulation results of MD and MMD were
almost identical, which may be due to the fact that the germ
volume ratio is too small to affect the moisture diffusion abil-
ity of corn kernel, although the germ had higher moisture
366 Food and Bioproducts Processing 1 1 7 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 360–372

Fig. 6 – Simulation of moisture distribution in corn kernels based on different assumptions (OH, MD and MMD). The colour
bar represents the moisture content in dry base.

content. Fig. 5(b) & (c) show the simulated results of mois-
ture content in corn germ and endosperm, respectively. The
difference between experimental values and simulated values
of MMD was smaller than that of MD, since the initial mois-
ture content of corn kernels used in MD overestimated the
initial moisture content of endosperm and underestimated
the moisture content of germ. And for another, the mois-
ture diffusion coefficients of different components between
MD and MMD were affected by their different assumptions of
initial moisture content (Chen et al., 2009). However, the sim-
ulated values of MMD overestimated the moisture content of
endosperm and underestimated that of germ in the early stage
of drying. The results may be caused by the complex diffusion
mechanism of moisture transfer from germ to endosperm.
Moisture transfer between embryo and endosperm are not
only driven by moisture gradient, but also may be resisted by
water retaining capacity due to their different structure and
matter composition (Shao and Li., 2013). As mentioned above,
the initial moisture content of germ was almost twice as much
as that of endosperm, such equilibrium state of non-uniform
moisture content in corn kernels is not taken into account in
the mathematical models of this study.
The moisture distribution of corn kernel simulated by OH,
MD and MMD is presented in Fig. 6. The highest moisture sim-
 Food and Bioproducts Processing 1 1 7 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 360–372 367

Fig. 7 – Proton density images of corn kernels during drying. The higher signal intensity means a higher moisture content.

Fig. 8 – Simulation of moisture content in corn kernels.

ulated by OH was expected to be near geometric center of corn
kernel due to its homogeneous assumption. Simulation of MD
and MMD showed that the region with highest moisture was
away from the geometric center and occurred in the germ.
However, for MD, its highest moisture region also covered parts
of soft-endosperm in the initial period of drying, which was
in agreement with the results simulated by Takhar (2011a),
Takhar et al. (2011b) due to uniform distribution of initial
moisture content. Proton density images of corn kernel during
drying process were collected by nuclear magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) to verify the moisture distribution prediction.
As shown in Fig. 7, initial moisture distribution of corn ker-
nel was non-uniform during drying, since the higher signal
intensity means a higher moisture content. It was clear that
moisture content of germ was higher than that of endosperm,
and germ still remained a high moisture content even after
150 min drying. Similar results have been reported by Kovács
and Neményi (1999) for corn drying. Therefore, MMD had the
highest accuracy in simulating moisture transfer of corn ker-
nels considering its non-uniform moisture distribution during
drying.
Changes of moisture content at different spatial locations
inside the corn kernels simulated by MMD are shown in Fig. 8.
In general, the moisture was traveling from high moisture
regions to low moisture regions taking the short paths. As
expected, the moisture content of corn kernels decreased
368 Food and Bioproducts Processing 1 1 7 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 360–372

Fig. 9 – Simulation of moisture flux in corn kernels. Arrows indicate the direction of moisture flux. The arrow length is
proportional to the value of moisture flux. The colour bar represents the moisture content in dry base.

Fig. 10 – Comparison between simulated and experimental temperature of corn kernels during drying.
 Food and Bioproducts Processing 1 1 7 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 360–372 369

gradually from inside to surface. In terms of changes in mois-
ture content inside the corn kernels, part of the moisture in the
germ migrated to the endosperm, which led to an increasing
moisture content of endosperm near germ and a significant
reduction in moisture content of germ near endosperm. The
moisture content of germ near the surface decreased faster
than that of germ near the endosperm, since the low dif-
fusivity of pericarp was expected to cause higher moisture
retention. The cortex resistance during drying process existed
in many agro-products (Wang et al., 2017; Di Matteo et al.,
2000).
Moisture flux simulated by MMD of corn kernel is shown in
Fig. 9. The largest moisture flux on the surface of corn kernel
was distributed near germ, which explained why the drying
rate of germ was larger than that of endosperm (Fig. 4(c)). Sim-
ilar results have been detected during corn drying (Kovács and
Neményi, 1999). This may probably due to its larger moisture
diffusion coefficient of germ and shorter diffusion distance
away from surface. As expected, the lowest moisture diffusion
flux was distributed on the canopy of corn kernel. This was in
agreement with the results obtained by Ghosh et al. (2008) for
simulation of wheat drying. As drying progresses, there was a

Fig. 11 – Simulation of temperature distribution in corn kernels. represents the maximum temperature of kernels and 
represent the minimum temperature.
370 Food and Bioproducts Processing 1 1 7 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 360–372
Fig. 12 – Surface temperature distribution of corn kernels. The colour bar represents the temperature.
reduction of moisture diffusion flux distributed on the surface
of corn kernel due to the large quantity of dehydration.
3.3. Verification of temperature prediction
Temperature is one of the main factors affecting the drying
speed and quality of grains, the temperature of the grains
tends to be lower than that of hot air due to the evaporation
(Srisang et al., 2016). Especially in the early stage of drying,
there was a large moisture diffusion flux of corn kernels.
In view of the differences in thermo-physical properties of
the various components in corn kernels, there was compared
the evolution of temperature simulated by OH, MD and MMD
(Fig. 10). The deviation between the simulated values of OH
and the experimental value was larger than that of MD and
MMD. The simulated values of OH were lower than experimen-
tal values in the early stage of drying, and higher than that in
the late stage of drying, which may be caused by the evap-
oration characteristics, where the moisture content of corn
kernels simulated by OH decreased rapidly in the early stage
and slowly in the later stage. In contrast, it was reasonable that
the simulated values of MD and MMD had higher coincidence
with the experimental values.
Fig. 11 compares temperature distribution of corn kernels
simulated by OH, MD and MMD. Temperature gradient inside
corn kernel was formed during drying process. The minimum
temperature region simulated by OH and MD was near the
geometric center of corn kernel. However, for MMD, germ
had the lowest temperature, and the temperature gradient
between germ and endosperm decreased with the increase
of drying time. The phenomenon was similar to the moisture
content distribution. The surface temperature images of corn
kernels during drying process were collected by infrared ther-
mal imager to verify the changes of temperature distribution.
As shown in Fig. 12, the surface temperature near endosperm
is higher than that of germ, which proved that the tempera-
ture distribution of corn kernels is non-uniform during drying
process. The temperature gradient between surface of germ
and endosperm decreased from 1.5 ◦ C to about 0.5 ◦ C, which
corresponded to the simulation results of MMD. It showed that
MMD had a higher accuracy than OH and MD in temperature
simulation.
The simulation results of heat flux distribution in corn
kernel based on MMD are shown in Fig. 13. The heat flux
of germs was the most intensive region in corn kernel at
10 min (Fig. 13(a)). According to the above results, this may
be attributed to its higher moisture content with larger spe-
cific heat capacity and more intense evaporation during drying
process because of the coupling of heat and mass transfer
(Srisang et al., 2016). As the surface dehydration and moisture
transfer from germ to endosperm, the dry-wet interface of the
germ gradually moved to inner, the surface moisture diffusion
flux near the germ was gradually reduced, so the main region
of evaporation and heat absorption in corn kernel gradually
evolved to the geometric center at 150 min (Fig. 13(b) & (c)).
4. Conclusions
Three-dimensional body-fitted geometric models with one-
component and multi-component were captured based on the
actual structure sizes of corn kernels. The mathematical dry-
ing models were developed based on one-component homo-
geneity (OH), multi-component (pericarp, hard endosperm,
soft endosperm and germ) heterogeneity of moisture diffu-
sion coefficient (MD) and multi-component heterogeneity of
initial moisture content and moisture diffusion coefficient
(MMD), respectively. Simulation results were in agreement
with the nuclear magnetic imaging and infrared thermal
imaging. MMD reproduced the distribution and variation of
temperature and moisture content inside corn kernels with
the highest accuracy. The results provided a better option for
accurate simulation of moisture and temperature inside corn
kernels during drying.
The heterogeneity among different components deter-
mined the non-uniform distributions of temperature and
moisture content in corn kernels during drying, where germ
showed higher water content and lower temperature than
endosperm. The highest moisture flux and heat flux were
 Food and Bioproducts Processing 1 1 7 ( 2 0 1 9 ) 360–372
Fig. 13 – Simulation of heat flux in corn kernels. Arrows
indicate the direction of heat flux. The arrow length is
proportional to the value of heat flux. The colour bar
represents the temperature.
observed around germ. Accordingly, the drying rate of germ
was larger than that of endosperm. Although moisture trans-
fer from germ to endosperm delayed its drying, the endosperm
still played a leading role in the drying process of corn kernels.
The results revealed the mechanism of heat and mass transfer
in different components of corn kernels.
Acknowledgments
This research was conducted in the College of Engineer-
ing, China Agricultural University, and supported by research
grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China
(No. 31171772) and National Commonweal Industrial Special
Scientific Research Funds for Grain Industry (No. 201413006).
371
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