Steady state analysis for heat and mass transfer of grain dried in a packed moving bed dryer

Abstract This paper is concerned with a numerical approach for grain drying process in a packed moving grain dryer, where the grain drying process is regarded as steady process based on a newly proposed steady state equation for moisture content of grain. The present method is compared with antecedent results suggested by Zare (Zare D. Computer simulation of rough rice drying in a batch dryer. Energy Convers Manag 2006;47:3241–54) conducted experiments for moisture content and temperature of grain dried in a fixed bed dryer, and shows good agreement. The present model is then extended to the case of the cylindrical dryer with a packed falling bed. The effects of operating parameters of the dryer (i.e. temperature and flow rate of inlet hot air and moving velocity of packed bed) on moisture content of grain are considered. The present approach can be applied to predict the positional distribution of physical quantities such as temperatures of air and grains as well as the relative humidity of air and the moisture content of grains in an arbitrarily-shaped packed moving grain dryer.