Numerical Simulation of Intermittent and Continuous Deep-Bed Drying of Biological Materials

This paper presents a simulation study of dryers. A two-dimensional deep-bed drying model, which incorporates modifications in existing one-dimensional models, has been developed and has the capability of handling both non-uniform velocity profiles and material properties dependence on temperature and moisture content. A corn drying system was simulated in order to analyze its temporal and spatial drying behavior. Both intermittent and continuous drying were simulated. The results showed that continuous drying is more efficient than intermittent drying with respect to drying time. However, intermittent drying led to more uniform temperature and moisture distributions, which improve grain quality. The model can be easily extended to three-dimensional drying analysis.