Mehdi Moradi - Department of Biosystems Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
S.H Karparvar Fard - Department of Biosystems Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
A Zomorodian - Department of Biosystems Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

Drying process of agricultural grains consumes immense amount of energy. In this research, effect of usage of inert particles was investigated in grain drying process theoretically. Inert particles intensify heat flux in to the grains and thereafter drying rate of them would be boosted. In this work, corn grain was selected as a case study. Three levels of drying air temperature, three levels of drying air velocity and four different numbers of inert particles were adopted to evaluate mean temperature of the corn grain during drying. The results showed that the mean temperature of the grain in different drying methods indicate significant differences. Variations of effective moisture diffusion coefficient were also investigated in different drying conditions. Results showed that this vital drying coefficient would be increased using the inert materials

Agricultural grains, grain drying process, Inert particles