HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER DURING DRYING PROCESS

*Dalel Helel, **Noureddine Boukadida

U.R.E.E, Institut Suprieur des Sciences Appliques et de Technologie de Sousse, 4003 Ibn Khaldoun, Sousse
Tunisia .
Email: *dalel.helel@enim.rnu.tn
**noureddine.Boukadida@issatso.rnu.tn
T

ABSTRACT
The aim of this work is to study the mechanism of heat and mass transfer during drying process of an unsaturated porous
medium having clay brick characteristics witch is placed in horizontal channel. The porous medium is submitted to a forced
convection laminar flow. We particularly bring out the space time variability effect of heat and mass transfer coefficients on
space-time evolution of temperature, water saturation and gas-pressure in the porous medium, in the solid-fluid interface and
in the channel during the drying process.

1. INTRODUCTION
The understanding of coupled heat and mass transfer in a
porous media submitted to thermal forced convection has
been the subject of several theoretical and experimental
scientific studies and is motivated in more applications and
intervenes in varied domains as the energy storage, the
extraction of oil, the thermal drying, etc. During drying
operation, many problems are encountered as high energy
consumption, cracking, colour change, aroma, chemical
composition change, kinetic of drying and the final shape of
the product. In fact the improvement of technical system
drying is becoming a necessity. So among the main
preoccupations of industrial and researchers is therefore to
optimize drying way and new techniques to obtain an optimal
drying system permitting to save energy and improve the
quality of the dried product. To attempt this objective, a
better comprehension of coupled mechanism of heat and
mass transfer inside and outside porous media in dynamic, in
thermal and in mass boundaries layers is required.
Among the works concerning the convective drying of
unsaturated porous media, we mention the work of Basilico
et al. [1,2]. They were interested in phenomena of heat and
mass transfer inside wood, and to its coupling with the
external conditions during a drying by forced convection at
high temperature. Among authors who also approached this
problem, we can cite works of Whitaker [3-5] and of P. Perr
and Degiovanni [6] who are interested to phenomena of heat
and mass transfer inside wood, and to its coupling with the
external conditions at the time of a drying by forced
convection at low or high temperature. Amir et al. [7-8]
studied the drying of a thick plate of a humid porous material
submitted to laminar forced flow of hot air circulating in the
same way to his surface. The coupling between equations of
boundary layer in air and those describing humidity and heat
transfer in the porous media are considered. The problem is
solved numerically by the finite differences scheme. The
space-temporal fields of temperature and humidity are

calculated and local coefficients of thermal and mass transfer

are deduced.
Heat and mass transfers are two components holding an
important role on the drying time. There are many works that
showed the effect of coefficients of heat and mass transfer
and the thermo-physical characteristics on the drying kinetics
[9]. Other works studied the ambient parameters effects
(pressure, temperature, vapour concentration) on the process
of drying while considering some constant coefficients of
transfer [10]. Beeby et al. [11] discuss the advantages and
disadvantages of using superheated steam over hot air as a
drying medium. Many authors reported that in certain cases,
the quality of the product can be enhanced. Yoshida et al.
[12] demonstrated that superheated steam can provide an
excellent medium for drying food products. In this domain of
drying by forced convection, studies are relatively numerous,
we can mention the work of Perr et al. [13,14], Fayer et al.
[15] and Johansson et al. [16]. Jomaa [17] and Caceres [18]
studied the phenomena for a saturated and greatly
deformable porous media; the objective of their work is to
control the distortion of the product and his content in water.
W. Masmoudi et al. [19] interested to the study of the heat
and mass transfer coefficients at the interface of an
unsaturated porous media exposed to an external air flow
during drying process. It is shown that the coefficient differ
from the standard values corresponding to the air flow on the
flat plate with uniform variables at the interface. Rogers et al.
[20] examine the process of heat and mass transfer during
convective drying of saturated granular beds exposed to the
ambient air. They proved that the heat and mass transfer
process are not analogous.
Many models for the study of drying have been used for
more than 10 years. More recently, pore network models
have been used to study the influence of pore size
distributions on saturation and transport parameters as well
as on drying kinetics [21, 22]. Prat [23] explore the influence
of pore shape and contact angle on drying rates during the
isothermal drying of porous materials in relation with the

effect of liquid films when viscous effects are important in

the film but not in the liquid saturated pores. It is shown that
the overall drying time is greatly affected by the pore shape
and contact angle when film flows are important, the
quantitative prediction of drying rate becomes very difficult
because it depends on tiny details of the pore space geometry
and is affected by possible changes in the local humidity
conditions. This contributes to explain why the accurate
prediction of drying rate still remains essentially an open
question, at least when the effect of films cannot be
neglected.
In the porous media convective drying domain,
Boukadida et al. [24] studied numerically two-dimensional
heat and mass transfer during convective drying of porous
media. The established code based on the Whitakers theory
took into account the effect of gas pressure and permitted to
determine the space-time evolution of the medium's state
variables (temperature, gas pressure, and water saturation).
The choice of average heat and mass transfer coefficients
was based on analogy between heat and mass transfer. In
[25], they extended their work by investigating a numerical
study to determine effects of the surrounding air's
(temperature, water-vapour concentration, etc.) on drying
kinetic and on the space-time evolution of the medium's state
variables.
Using by default the analogy between heat and mass
transfer presents insufficiency because it can not really and
precisely describe the real transport phenomena during drying
process in space and time.
Basing on this, in the same way, Boukadida et al. have
established a second code permitting to study two
dimensional coupled heat and mass transfer in laminar forced
convection flow inside a horizontal channel [26]. They
brought out the domain of the validity of analogy between
heat and mass transfer and they showed that the analogy is
valid only for low ambient temperature and low water-vapour
concentration. Many other results were obtained as the effect
of radiation on the different state variables (temperature,
water-vapour concentration, etc) and on local heat and mass
transfer coefficients and their variations with ambient state
variables. These local coefficients are calculated by
considering that lower surface of the channel is assumed to
be at the wet bulb temperature which depends mainly on the
ambient temperature, ambient gas pressure and water-vapour
concentration. The lower surface was not considered as a
surface of a porous media in which the drying mechanism is
considered. Then the considered saturated water vapour
pressure at interface is that of a plane surface.
In their other paper [27], they studied the effect of the
radiation heat transfer on inversion temperature in the case of
water evaporation into two-dimensional laminar flow inside
the channel. Their results showed that gas pressure and
velocity affect inversion temperature and the inclusion of
radiation effect decreases the inversion temperature.
Believing that the use of average heat and mass transfer
coefficient can not allow a precise idea of the real mechanism
of space time drying process, then by fitting space-evolutions
of local coefficients of heat and mass transfer that were
determined in reference [26], Boukadida et al. obtained
correlations in the form: htx=atxb and hmx=amxb where x is
the axial coordinate and at, bt, am and bm are positive
constants. These correlations were injected as thermal and
mass limit conditions [28] in the first code which permits to
simulate mechanism of heat and mass transfer during
t

convective drying of unsaturated porous media. They mainly

showed the effect of that limit conditions on mechanism of
convective drying of porous media.
It should be kept in mind that during drying process heat
and mass transfer coefficients depend on water saturation of
the porous media interface. In order to bring out this effect
Boukadida et al. using the same equations system as
described in [27] and by assuming that the lower surface of
the channel is wet, made a preliminary study in which they
considered that saturated water vapour pressure at interface is
function of the wet bulb temperature and of the water
saturation. So they determined evolution of average
coefficients of heat and mass transfer with water saturation
for different ambient temperatures. They obtained
correlations which are in the following form: ht=4i=1AtiSi and
hm=4i=1AmiSi where Ati and Ami are positive constants which
depend on limit conditions at the channel entrance.
Later, inspired by Whitaker theory and by using
BICGSTB (Bi-Conjugate Gradient Stabilised) method [2930], Mobarki et al. [31-33] developed a mathematical model
governing heat and mass transfer during convective and
convective-radiative drying of unsaturated porous media.
The main purpose of this model was to resolve many
numerical problems encountered at the moment of the
appearance of the drying front when the drying operation is
conducted at high temperature and high vapour-water
concentration. By using correlations of local or average heat
and mass transfer coefficients that were brought out by
Boukadida et al. in case where the heat radiation transfer is
taken into account or by assuming that the lower interface is
wet [27], they presented [31-33] effects of ambient
temperature, ambient vapour-water concentration, interfacial
saturation and effects of variability of fluid thermo-physical
properties on drying process. They depicted that the
interfacial liquid saturation can have a slight effect on the
evolution of mediums temperature and gas pressure while
the global drying time is nearly not affected. This slight
effect mainly appears in hygroscopic domain especially for
high ambient temperature. They also studied the effect of
surrounding temperature lower or higher than the inversion
temperature and the effect of the variables fluid thermophysical properties on the space time evolution of mediums
temperature and gas pressure for different ambient
temperature, gas pressure and vapour-water concentration.
Principal results showed that the effect of fluid thermophysical properties dependence on temperature and on the
gas pressure affects drying process and modifies in certain
cases the temperature and gas pressure profiles.
However an insufficiency is noted in the fact that the
used correlations are independent of time. In reality local
coefficients of heat and mass transfer principally depend on
space time evolution of interfacial temperature which is
linked to the thermal, dynamic and mass evolution variables
in the boundary layers and on initial thermal and liquid
volume fraction in the porous media for every step in the
time. They also depend on physical properties of the porous
media and on thermo-physical properties of the drier fluid.
The present study which extends the previous works
consists in studying numerically the effect of thermal, mass
and dynamic boundaries layers on mechanism of heat and
mass transfer during drying process of flat plat having a clay
brick characteristics (table 1) via the space-time variability
effect of heat and mass transfer coefficients. For each time
step the different state variables inside and outside the porous
medium are determined and local coefficients of heat and
B

PB

PB

mass transfer are deduced. We principally describe the space

time evolution of the temperature, the water saturation and
the pressure fields in particular in the porous medium. The
space time evolution of local coefficients of heat and mass
transfer and of the interfacial temperature and water
saturation will also be presented and analysed.
2. BASIC FORMULATIONS
2.1 Position of the problem

To
B

Channel

Pgo
Uo

T
T T
T C v
= g
+ g D v c pv c pa
g c pg u
+v

y
y y

Porous Medium

Species equation
C
C

C
g D v v
g u v + g v v =
x
y
y
y

Liquid phase
Assuming that liquid density is constant, the mass
conservation equation of the liquid phase is:

l
m
+ Vl = v
(5)
t
l

 v is the mass rate of evaporation and l is the

where m
volume fraction of the liquid phase.
Gas phase
For this phase, the average density g

In order to obtain a closed set of governing macroscopic

equations the following assumptions are made:
- the Soret and Dufour effects are neglected,
- the compression work and viscous dissipation effects are
neglected,
- the solid, liquid, gas phases are in local thermodynamic
equilibrium,
- the transfer by radiation is negligible,
- the thermo-physical properties are variable,
- the boundary-layer approximations are valid,
- the porous medium is homogenous and isotropic,
- the air water vapour mixture is a perfect gas,
- the dispersion and tortuosity terms are interpreted as
diffusion terms,
- the fluid flow is considered as laminar.

(6)

(7)

=0

gas phase

Vg g

Vg

g u

P
u
u
u
g

+ g v
= g +
x
y
x y y

D veff v
g

and the

For the liquid phase

KK l
l

P
g

l
Pc + l g

(8)

For the gas phase, without taking the gravitational

effect, we have:

KK g
g
l

Pg

(9)

Pl where Pl (resp. Pg

is

the

intrinsic

average pressure of the liquid phase (resp. gas phase), K is

the intrinsic permeability , Kl (resp. Kg) is the relative
permeability of the liquid (resp. gaz), Pc is the capillary
pressure [34] considered as a characteristic of the porous
media and is function only of the temperature and moisture
constant.
B

(2)

are obtained using Darcy's law, which is

Momentum equation

generalized by using the concept of relative permeability,

defined as the ratio between the effective permeability and
the intrinsic permeability:

Pc = Pg

(1)

Vg =

Mass conservation equation

v
Vv = m

The average velocities of the liquid phase Vl

2.2.1 In the channel

Vv = v

where Dveff is the coefficient of the effective diffusion of the

vapour in the porous media. This coefficient takes into
account the resistance to the diffusion due to the tortuosity
and the effects of constriction.

2.2 Governing equations

with v

+ v

Vl =

Considering these hypotheses, the basic equations of the flow

become:

is not constant, the

mass conservation equation is given by:

g
g
v
+ g Vg = m

t
Vapour phase
t

Figure 1: Geometrical configuration of the system

( ) ( v)

(4)

Mass conservation equations

g u

(3)

where c pg = (1 C v )c pa + C v c pv

2.2.2 In the porous media

The system considered in this work is composed of

unsaturated porous plate composed of an inert and rigid solid
phase, a liquid phase (pure water) and a gas phase which
contains both air and water vapour. The two vertical faces of
the porous plate as well as the low face are assimilated to
adiabatic and impervious faces. The high face of the plate
represents the permeable interface of the horizontal plane
channel when is exposed of a hot air out-flow with fixed
characteristics (velocity, temperature and humidity). The
geometrical configuration used for the slab is shown in
figure1.
y
Air flow Cvo

Heat equation

Energy conservation equation

l
g
c p T + l c pl Vl + k c pk Vk T =
t
k = a, v

v
(10)
( eff T ) H vap m

H vap is the latent heat of vaporization at temperature T(K):

H vap = H ovap c pv c pl

T where H ovap is the latent

heat of vaporization at temperature T = 0 K.

c p is the constant pressure heat capacity of the porous
media given by : c p = s c ps + l c pl + v c pv + a c pa
where s c ps , l c pl , v c pv and a c pa are respectively
the mass heat capacity at constant pressure of the solid,
liquid, vapour and air.
2.3 Initial and boundary conditions
2.3.1 Initial conditions

Initially (t=0), the temperature, the gas pressure and the liquid
saturation are uniform inside the porous medium.
2.3.2 Boundary conditions

eff

Vl + v

+ H vap

) =h (
( V ) =h
Vv

mx

tx

v0

(T

(13)

(14)

Where, htx and hmx are respectively the local coefficients of

heat and mass transfer, determined by resolution of boundary
layer equations.
The pressure of gas on surfaces of exchange is equal to the
B

air pressure: Pg

= Pg 0

- The equilibrium vapour pressure is a function of the

temperature and the liquid saturation:
2M v

Pv = Pvs exp
(15)
rRT
Where Pvs is the saturating vapour pressure at interface, given
by:
7235.46
Pvs = 10 5 exp(65.832 8.2 ln(Tint ) + 5.71710 3 Tint
Tint
r is the ray of curvature that depends on the saturation and
is the superficial tension.
B

3. NUMERICAL RESOLUTION

For the fluid in the channel

- At the entry of the channel, the temperature, the pressure
and the water-vapour concentration of the free ambient flow
are constant and uniform.
- Assuming that the gas-water interface is semi-permeable,
the velocity gas phase at the interface is written as:
D v C v
(11)
v g int =
1 C v y
- The longitudinal component of the velocity at the interface
is equal zero:
For 0<x<L and y = :
u=0
- At the upper surface of the channel, the velocity of the gas
mixture must respect the condition of adhesion:
For 0< x <L and y = E + :
u=0; v=0
- The local interfacial evaporating mass flux which is
evaluated by the following equation:

For the fluid in the channel the system of equation is

solved numerically by the method of a finite differences
scheme. The numerical resolution with this method consists
in transforming the system of equations in an algebraic
equation system. The resolution takes place plan by plan in
the sense of the out flow. The mesh [26] considered in the
channel is regular and rectangular one with 180 nodes in the
x-direction and 180 nodes in the y-direction. The unknown
variables (temperature, vapour-water concentration, velocity
and gas pressure) at column k+1 are calculated using the
know variables of column k. For the porous medium the
equations system is numerically solved by a finite volume
method based on the control domain notion as described by
Patankar [35]. In our case, we considered a regular mesh
with 180 nodes in the x-direction and 24 nodes in the ydirection. For more details concerning the numeric model,
the method of resolution and the thermo-physical properties
of the fluid, the reader can refer to [25,35].

D C v
 vx = g v
For 0 Cv(x,0) < 1: m

1 C v y y

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

(12)

= 0

- The upper surface temperature T0 is assumed to be constant:

T (x,E+) = T0.
B

4.1 Evolution of variables (T, Cv, g, u and v) along the

central line section of the channel
B

- On the adiabatic and impervious sides, the mass and heat

fluxes are equal zero:
For x= 0, x=L and 0 y :

Figure 2 shows evolution of temperature, water-vapour

concentration, gas density, longitudinal and vertical
velocities in the transverse direction of the channel. These
evolutions are drawn in a representative case characterized
by To =70C, Cvo=10-3, U0=0.2m.s-1, Pgo=1atm, Sini = 40%
and Tini = 15C.
At a given time (figure 2-a), the temperature that is
minimal at the interface fluid-porous medium, increases
according to the height of the channel and tends to reach the
ambient temperature (70C). This increase of the interfacial
temperature tends to decrease the boundary layer inside the
channel; it depends on parameters as the drying phase of
porous medium, the initial saturation, the initial temperature
of the porous medium and the regime of flow, etc. The
evolution of Tint in x=L/2 at different times (45C for t=84h
and 61C for t=168h) explains that the interface in this point
B

T
x

= 0; Vv

= 0; Vg

= 0; Vl

=0

= 0; Vg

= 0; Vl

=0

For y=0 and 0 x L :

eff

For the porous medium

eff

T
y

= 0; Vv

- On the permeable side (y=), heat and mass fluxes can be

written as follows:

is dry. The vapour concentration (Figure 2-b) is maximum at

the interface and decreasing according to the height of the
channel until the ambient vapour-water concentration (10-3).
The interface concentration decreases according to the time
and this decrease is bound strongly to the interfacial
saturation of water. The decrease of gas density according to
the time (Figure 2-c) is owed to the increase of the interfacial
temperature. The profiles of longitudinal and vertical
velocity are independent of the time (Figure 2-d and 2-e).
P

T(C)

Sint(%)

Tint(C)

t=168h
t=84h
t=10m

t=168h
t=84h
t=10m

80

40

60

20

40

20

0.0

Cv

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

X(m)

0.0

0.2

0.4

(a)

0.01

0.6

0.8

1.0

X(m)

(b)

70
0.0

t=168h
t=84h
t=10m

60
50
40

Figure 3: Evolution of Tint (a), and Sint (b) with X at

different times.

t=168h
t=84h
t=10m

0.00

0.00

30

4.3 Space time evolution of local heat and mass transfer

coefficients

0.00
20
0.00

10
0

0
0.

0.

0.

0.

0.

Y/E

1.

0.

0.

0.

(a)

0.

0.

1.

Y/E

(b)

-3

g (Kg.m )
B

1.3

t=168h
t=84
t=10mn

1.2

Figures 4-a and 4-b illustrate the effect of drying time on

the longitudinal evolution of local heat (htx) and mass (hmx)
transfer coefficients. These values are very important in the
vicinity of the left surface exchange. Coefficients decrease
and tend to be constant far from the side entrance. Their
variation according the time is bound strongly to the out flow
regime, the ambient conditions, and the drying phase (first
phase characterized by the increase or decrease of the
medium temperature, isenthalpic phase, falling rate period).

1.1

1.0

htx (w.m-2.K-1)
B

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

(c)

Y/E

1.0

hmx (m.s-1)

1.0E-2

t=168h
t=84h
t=10mn

t=168h
t=84h
t=10mn

0.3

20

V(m/s)

U(m/s)

24

1.0E-3

t=168h

t=168h
t=10mn

8.0E-3

t=10mn

16

6.0E-3

12

4.0E-3

8
5.0E-4

0.2

2.0E-3

4
0.0E+0
0.1

0.0

-5.0E-4

0.0

-1.0E-3
0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

Y/E

0.0

0.2

0.4

(d)

(e)

0.6

0.8

1.0

Y/E

Figure 2 : Evolution of different state variables

(T(a),Cv(b), g(c), U(d), V(e)) with Y/E in the transverse
direction of the channel ( X=L/2) at different times.
B

4.2 Space time evolution of the interface temperature and

water saturation

0.2

0.6

0.8

(a)

1.0

X(m)

0.0E+0
0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

1.0 X(m)

0.8

(b)

Figure 4: Evolution of local heat and mass transfer

coefficients (htx(a), hmx(b)) with X at different times.
B

4.4 Space time evolution of the different variables in the

porous medium

Figures 5, 6 and 7, present the space time evolution of the

different state variables in the following cases characterized
by To = 70C, Cvo=10-3, U0=0.2m.s-1, Pgo=1atm, Sini = 40%
and Tini = 15C:
In the first case (case 1), coefficients of heat and mass
transfer between the permeable interface and the drier fluid
are variable (determined by solving the boundaries layers
equations).
In the second case (case 2), coefficients of heat and mass
transfer are considered as constant (ht=2.5W.m-2.K-1 and
hm=18.10-4 m.s-1).
The different curves show that, whatever the case, three
drying phase that were analysed in [36-38] are distinguished.
In case 1, a sensitive effect on mechanism of drying process
is demonstrated as described. The magnitude of the drying
kinetic is principally controlled by the magnitude of heat and
mass transfer coefficients and the moving nature of the
B

Figure 3 illustrates the effect of drying time on evolution

of interface temperature (Tint) (Figure 3-a) and water
saturation (Sint) (Figure 3-b) along the x-direction. At the
beginning of drying (t=10mn), Tint and Sint start to increase
and to decrease respectively in the vicinity of the upper left
corner witch is placed at the channel entrance. The average
temperature and water saturation of the interface are about
17C and 40% respectively. Later an evaporation front takes
place earlier in the vicinity of the upper left corner (t= 48 h
and t=168 h) dividing the slab on dry zone and wet zone.
This front moves step by step towards the end of the slab. At
the end of drying, Tint and Sint evolve respectively towards
constant values (To =70C and Sirr ).

0.4

evaporation front sensitively depends of the space time

evolution of transfer coefficients.
In case 2 where coefficients of heat and mass transfer are
assumed to be constant, whatever the drying phase, at a given
time, for a given y-value, the space time evolution of state
variables are uniform along x-direction. The evaporation
front has a straight line form.

-The interfacial temperature and vapour-water concentration

depend on the phase of drying.
-The variability of heat and mass transfer coefficients with
time and with x-direction sensitively affects space time
temperature, pressure and water saturation profiles of the
porous medium during the drying process.

4.4.1 Space time evolution of the temperature inside the

porous medium

In figures 5-a and 5-b, we have presented the space time

evolution of medium temperature for different times during
drying kinetic. In case 1, figure 5-a obviously shows that the
temperature of porous medium increases sensitively with time
according to x-and y-direction. This increase is more
important at the left top corner, this is due to the high values
of local coefficients of heat and mass transfer in this zone, it
is that part of porous medium which enters first in
hygroscopic domain. In case 2, all nodes of a same line in xdirection and at given period have same value of variables
state (temperature, gas pressure and water saturation). In case
1, the evolution nature of porous medium state variables
sensitively depends on the space-time variability of htx and
hmx.
B

t=5mn

t=70h

t=168h

4.4.2 Space time evolution of water saturation inside the

porous medium

Figures 6-a and 6-b show the evolution of water

saturation inside the porous medium at different times. In
case 1, the water saturation decreases according time and xdirection. This is mainly explained by the evaporation of
water at the level of the interface fluid-drying porous
medium. At the beginning of drying process (t=5mn), the
water saturation starts to decrease at the left corner of the
exchange surface. For t=70h, the moving evaporation front
divides the porous medium in two zones: the first zone is wet
where the saturation approaches its initial value (40%), the
second zone is dry where the saturation decreases sensitively.
The evaporation front takes place earlier and the drying
process is faster than for the right surface exchange. At the
end drying (t=168h), the water saturation of the porous
medium evolves towards Sirr. In case 2, the space time
evolution of water saturation is uniform along x-direction.
B

Figure 5-a: Space time evolution of temperature in

the porous medium. (Case 1)

t=5mn

4.4.3 Space time evolution of pressure in the porous

medium

t=70h

Figures 7-a and 7-b show the space time evolution of the
gas pressure inside the medium. At the beginning of process
drying (t=5mn) the pressure sustains a depression in the both
cases. When the porous medium enters in the hygroscopic
domain the pressure increases and reaches a maximum value
at the level of the drying front.
t=168h

5. CONCLUSION

This paper presents a numerical study of two

dimensionnel heat and mass transfer during the convective
drying of clay brick, exposed to a laminar flow having
various thermophysical caracteristics. The simulation
principally shows that:
-The different space time evolutions of state variables inside
the porous medium and in the channel are sensitively affected
when the local behaviour of boundaries layers are taken into
account

Figure 5-b: Space time evolution of temperature in

the porous medium. (Case 2)

t=5mn
t=5mn

t=70h

t=70h

t=168h

t=168h

Figure 6-a: Space time evolution of water

saturation in the porous medium. (Case 1)

Figure 6-b: Space time evolution of water

saturation in the porous medium. (Case 2)

t=5mn

t=70h

t=168h

Figure 7-a: Space time evolution of gas pressure in

the porous medium. (Case 1)

Figure 7-b: Space time evolution of gas pressure in

the porous medium. (Case 2)

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P

7. NOMENCLATURE

Cv
cp
Dv
E
g
hmx
hm
htx
ht
K
L
M
P
Pc
R
r
S
T
t
u
v
B

v
m
X
y

vapour-water concentration
specific heat of fluid at constant pressure, J.kg-1.K-1
vapor diffusion coefficient into air, m2.s-1
height of the channel
gravitational constant, m.s-2
local mass transfer coefficient , m.s-1
average mass transfer coefficient , m.s-1
local heat transfer coefficient, W.m-2.K-1
average heat transfer coefficient, W.m-2.K-1
intrinsic permeability, m2
Channel length, m
molecular weight, Kg
pressure, Pa
capillary pressure, Pa
universal gas constant, J.mole-1.K-1
curve ray
liquid saturation
temperature, K
time, s
longitudinal velocity, m.s-1
transverse velocity, m.s-1
masse flow rate, Kg.m-2.s-1
longitudinal direction, m
transverse direction, m
B

Hvap latent heat of vaporization, J.Kg-1

B

Greek symbols

porosity
thermal conductivity , W.m-1.K-1
dynamic viscosity , Kg.m-1.s-1
density, Kg.m-3
superficial tension, N.m-1
P

Lower indices

a
eff
g
ini
int
irr
l
o
resp.
s
v
vs
x

dry air
effective
gas (air-water vapor mixture)
initial
interface
irreducible
liquid
ambient
respectively
solid
water vapour
saturated vapour
local

Symbols

average value

Porosity

=0.26

Density

s=2600 Kg.m-3

Specific heat

Cps=879 J.Kg-1.K-1

Thermal conductivity

s=1.44 W.m-1.K-1

Intrinsic permeability

K=2.510-4m2

Table 1: Physical characteristics of porous medium.