Simulation of drying process for 5HCCX-1.6 multi-zone belt dryer

Simulation of drying process for a multi-zone belt drying process can be useful for optimizing the drying parameters, improving the drying efficiency, saving the consumed energy and ensuring the drying quality. The multi-zone belt drying modeling of corn has been studied by considering the deep bed as a series of thin layers. A partial differential equation model has been developed to simulate heat and mass transfer in multi-zone belt dryer. The computer program with human-machine cooperation interface can predict the changes of temperature and moisture of the corn, temperature and humidity of the drying air along the dryer. Furthermore, the effects of different drying parameters such as airflow rate, drying air temperature, air relative humidity on drying process were analyzed. It was found that the primary and secondary order of drying parameters affecting the drying rate is the drying air temperature, airflow rate and air relative humidity. As a process of validation of the modeling, the predicted and experimental results of 5HCCX-1.6 multi-zone belt dryer were compared. It has been observed that the simulation results agreed quite well with experimental data.