Convective and Microwave Assisted Drying of Wet Porous Materials with Prolate Spheroidal Shape: A Finite-Volume Approach

Convective heating is a traditional method used for the drying of wet porous materials. Currently, microwave drying has been employed for this purpose, due to its excellent characteristics of uniform moisture removal and heating inside the material, higher drying rate, and low energy demand. This pa...

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Published inAgriculture (Basel) Vol. 10; no. 11; p. 507
Main Authors Silva, Edna G., Gomez, Ricardo S., Gomes, Josivanda P., Figueirêdo, Rossana M. F., Queiroz, Alexandre J. M., Silva, Wilton P., Santiago, Ângela M., Macedo, Antonio D. B., Ferreira, João P. L., Gomes, Ítalo A., Lima, Antonio G. B.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.11.2020
Subjects
Boundary conditions
Conservation equations
convective
Dielectric properties
Diffusion theory
Drying
Energy conservation
Energy demand
Finite volume method
Fruits
Geometry
Grain
Heat transfer
Heating
Mass transfer
Mass transport
Mathematical models
microwave
Moisture content
Moisture removal
Partial differential equations
Porous materials
prolate spheroid
simulation
Temperature distribution
Transport properties
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Summary:Convective heating is a traditional method used for the drying of wet porous materials. Currently, microwave drying has been employed for this purpose, due to its excellent characteristics of uniform moisture removal and heating inside the material, higher drying rate, and low energy demand. This paper focuses on the study of the combined convective and microwave drying of porous solids with prolate spheroidal shape. An advanced mathematical modeling based on the diffusion theory (mass and energy conservation equations) written in prolate spheroidal coordinates was derived and the numerical solution using the finite-volume method is presented. Here, we evaluated the effect of the heat and mass transport coefficients and microwave power intensity on the moisture removal and heating of the solid. Results of the drying and heating kinetics and the moisture and temperature distribution inside the solid are presented and discussed. It was verified that the higher the convective heat and mass transfer coefficients and microwave power intensity, the faster the solid will dry and heat up.
ISSN:2077-0472
2077-0472
DOI:10.3390/agriculture10110507