Descrição da secagem convectiva de grãos de milho através de modelos difusivos.

Abstract

The objective with this essay is to carry out studies using analytical and numerical solutions of the diffusion equation to describe the drying of thin layer of corn grains at temperatures of 45, 55, 65 and 75 ° C, which have a shape that can be approximated for a parallelepiped. Numerical and analytical tools were used for the study of the diffusive phenomena involving the three geometric dimensions of the mentioned grains. For the numerical solution proposed, the three dimensional diffusion equation was discretized using the finite volume method with a fully implicit formulation using the cartesian coordinates. In order to establish the right boundary condition in the description of the corn grain drying kinetics, three software were used for the determination of the process parameters from the experimental data using optimization. The first software used to simulate corn drying kinetics was "Prescribed Adsorption - Desorption" V.2.2, which uses the analytical solution of the diffusion equation using the boundary condition of the first type. The second software used was "Convective Adsorption - Desorption" V. 2.4. This one simulates the kinetics of drying products using the analytical solution of the diffusion equation using the boundary condition of the third kind. The third software used in the optimization was the "LS Optimizer" V.2.1 which determines the parameters of a differential equation using the method of least squares in the numerical solution of the diffusion equation using the boundary condition of the third kind.The latter two have generated coherent and consistent results in all steps performed during testing. It can be concluded that the second and third proposed models to analyze the survey data were consistent and equivalent and the results were satisfactory. Thus, the boundary condition of the third kind was used for three -dimensional numerical solution of the diffusion equation in cartesian coordinates. Validation tests indicated that the developed numerical solution provides coherent results with t hose expected.