Mathematical Modeling and Computer Simulation of Continuous Rotary Dryers

In the present work a mathematical model has been developed for steady state computer simulation of rotary dryers. The variation of material property along the dryer is taken into consideration and the particles are considered to be of uniform size and shape. Solid particles are added and removed at a constant rate. The internal resistance of solid to mass and heat transfer is assumed negligible. The 4th order Runge- Kutta method is used for numerical solution of governing equations and the model turned into a computer code in Visual C++ environment. The model shows a good agreement with experiments in a pilot size sugar rotary dryer (prediction error is less than ±5%). Influence of solid and gas feed rate, inlet drying gas temperature, particle size distribution, length of dryer and other effective factors on moisture content of product has been investigated.

Keywords:

Rotary Dryer , Mathematical Modeling , Computer Simulation