SANTOS, J. P. S.; http://lattes.cnpq.br/1062875514662177; SANTOS, João Paulo da Silva.
Abstract:
Several authors has studied the phenomenon of heat and mass transfer during the drying
process. Numerous mathematical models have been proposed to describe the heating of solid
and moisture loss during drying, however worth pointing out that few studies incorporate the
phenomena of simultaneous heat and mass transport applied to ellipsoidal solids. Thus, this
study aims to simulate the drying of solids with complex shape. An analytical solution of the
diffusion equation to describe the transient process, based on the, theory of liquid diffusion,
using the Galerkin-based integral method considering convective boundary conditions and
constant thermophysical properties is presented. Application of the methodology has been
done to describe drying the wheat grain. Results of the moisture content and temperature of
the wheat grain during drying are presented and compared with the literature and a good
agreement was verified. The results are consistent and the model presented here can be used
to solve problems of simultaneous heat and mass transfer in agricultural products with prolate
spheroidal geometry such as wheat. It was observed that, on the drying process, the mass loss
of solid is smaller than the heating, one since heat thermal conductivity of is higher than the
mass diffusivity.