Thermal Dynamics of a Drum Dryer

The thermal dynamics of a top-loading drum dryer is studied with a view of deriving the transfer function for the thermal process involved. The drum which initially operates at a steady state, is subjected to a step change in the steam pressure and the response of the temperature of the outer surface of the drum is recorded. The normalised time domain response of the temperature T is analysed using the least squares method to a non-linear function. The time domain response is also transformed into the frequency domain using Fourier transforms and the transfer function is derived.