Publication Date:
2011-06-29
Description:
An improved mesoscopic model is presented for simulating the drying of porous media. The aim of this model is to account for two scales simultaneously: the scale of the whole product and the scale of the heterogeneities of the porous medium. The innovation of this method is the utilization of a new mass-conservative scheme based on the Control-Volume Finite-Element (CV-FE) method that partitions the moisture content field over the individual sub-control volumes surrounding each node within the mesh. Although the new formulation has potential for application across a wide range of transport processes in heterogeneous porous media, the focus here is on applying the model to the drying of small sections of softwood consisting of several growth rings. The results conclude that, when compared to a previously published scheme, only the new mass-conservative formulation correctly captures the true moisture content evolution in the earlywood and latewood components of the growth rings during drying. A new mesoscopic model was proposed for simulating the drying of porous media. Applying the new model to cross-sections of a pinewood board, the distribution of water within each control volume is correctly captured, which provides a better representation of the true moisture content distribution during drying.
Print ISSN:
0930-7516
Electronic ISSN:
1521-4125
Topics:
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Process Engineering, Biotechnology, Nutrition Technology
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