Summary

This experiment was performed to study the rate of drying, the drying
characteristics of solid, and the relationship between constant rate drying
and air velocity. The Psychometric chart is used to find the wet bulb
temperature (cold compressed air humidity = 11.5%RH).

The sand was weighed and the temperature of the sand was taken every
five minutes. The experiment was run at approximately at 77 oC with air
velocity of 1.0 m/s ,1.4 m/s and 1.8 m/s. The different air velocities were
adjusted using the values of calculated pressure drop for an air-kerosene
manometer. The sand was mixed with water by a given ratio of 100g-
sand/20g -water. The thermocouple was placed just below the surface of
the sand sample 1. The temperature of sample 1 was recorded every 5
minutes until it equalized with the air temperature. For each air velocity,
the sample was weighed every 5 minutes until the weight stop changing.
The samples were then put in the oven overnight and the weights of the
samples were measured again on the next day.

Using weight of moisture and time, drying curves were plotted. These
graphs give constant drying rates that were used on plotting a graph of
log(constant drying rate) against log U. The gradients give values n for
each temperature ………………
Calculation

1)

Cold compressed air humidity = 11.5 %

Hot air temperature = 77 oC

From the IHVE psychrometric chart, wet bulb temperature =37.5 oC

Temperature plateau during constant rate drying period = 43 oC

GPAPH

The weights of the petri dish and its content obtained in experimental (5)

dish+sand mixture (after the experiment) =70.049 g

dish+sand mixture (after 1 day) =69.971 g

The two values are very close. This means that the equilibrium moisture content
is essentially zero.

The drying rate is R=KH(H0-H)=h(T-TW)/

When the temperature of the sand equals the temperature of the air( when the
dish+sand mixture was weighed), the drying rate is zero. This shows that all the
masss transfer has been stopped when the temperature difference is zero. From
the two value of weights, the sand has nearly zero moisture content at
equilibrium. The weight of dish+sand after 1 day is the weight of dish+ bone-dry
sand as the dish was left in an oven .(after a night, the moisture content is
assumed to be zero as there is more than enough time for equilibrium to
establish and for all the water in the sand to be evaporated)

2)

The weight of Petri dish plus weight of bone-dry sand is the weight of the
dish+sand mixture (after 1 day). These can be obtained from table 3

Graph 1: Drying curve 2 . The weight of the moisture in Petri dish 2,w(g)
versus time,t (min) for air velocity = 1.0 m/s

Graph 2: Drying curve 3 . The weight of the moisture in Petri dish 3,w(g)
versus time,t (min) for air velocity = 1.4 m/s
Graph 3: Drying curve 4 . The weight of the moisture in Petri dish 4,w(g)
versus time,t (min) for air velocity = 1.8 m/s

3) The value of dw/dt is obtained from the gradient of the drying curve.

Graph 4: A graph of drying rate per unit area(-dw/Adt)

(g/min.m2)against moisture content(%) for air velocity = 1.0 m/s

Graph 5: A graph of drying rate per unit area(-dw/Adt)

(g/min.m2)against moisture content(%) for air velocity = 1.4 m/s

Graph 6: A graph of drying rate per unit area(-dw/Adt)

(g/min.m2)against moisture content(%) for air velocity = 1.8 m/s
Discussion

Material exposed to air at given temperature and humidity might lose or

gain water until the equilibrium condition is established. The water
removed by vaporisation is generally carried away by air or hot gases. The
ability of these gases to pick up the water is determined by the
equilibrium moisture content which varies with humidity and the air
temperature.

In drying, it is necessary to remove free moisture from the surface and

also moisture from the interior of the material. Non- porous insoluble solid
such as sand has equilibrium moisture content approaching or equal to
zero for all humidity and temperature. This is because the water merely
surrounds the sand particles and is not bound to or contained in the sand.
The unbound water in voids between sand particles exerts its full vapour
pressure. Therefore, it is relatively easy to remove. Also, the particle’s
size of sand is very small. This contributes to a large exposed surface area
per volume ratio that facilitates evapouration of water.

The critical moisture content is not affected by both the air temperature
and velocity. The critical moisture content is reached when the surface
water evaporated. The amount of the surface water that needs to be
evaporated is the same for each dish. The different air velocity only
determine the time taken to foe the drying rate to reach the critical
moisture content but not the value of the critical moisture content itself.
The time taken to reach the critical moisture content is shorten by a
higher air velocity as more air flows pass the surface of the dish per unit
time. Thus, the amount of water (mass) transfer of high air velocity is
greater than that of lower velocity.

The data roughly reflects two distinct stages. One stage is the constant
rate of drying and another is a steady falling rate of drying as moisture
content is reduced to zero. The graph of thr falling rate period is a linear
line. This shows that the solid is non-porous……The values of the constant
rate of drying for air velocity of 1.0m/s ,1.4m/s and 1.8m/s are…………..

(4) Compressed air has a low humidity because when the air is under high
pressure, the relative humidity of the system increases as the partial
pressure of water in the system increases with increasing system
pressure. The relative humidity keeps increasing until it reaches the
saturated humidity. As the air is further compressed, some of the
moisture in the air(water vapour) will start to condense out from the gas
phase to the liquid phase( forms droplets). A water phase diagram is a
good way to look at this. At 100 C, at pressure below 1 atm, water is in
gas phase. At pressure over 1 atm, the water will be in liquid phase.
Another reason why the compressed air has low humidity is that very
moist air cannot be put in a compressor. This is because the water
condensed will damage the compressor. Also, the compressor efficiency is
lowered as some of its energy has to
channel to condense the water vapour
in the air.

If the change in moisture content for a material is

determined as a function of time, a smooth curve is
obtained from which the rate of drying at any given
moisture content may be evaluated. The form of the
drying rate curve varies with the structure and type of
material, and two typical curves are shown in Figure
16.2. In curve 1, there are two well-defined zones:
AB, where the rate of drying is constant and BC, where there is a steady fall in the rate of drying as the
moisture content is reduced. The moisture content at the end of the constant rate period is represented
by point B, and this is known as the critical moisture content

During the constant rate period, it is assumed that drying takes place from a saturated surface of the
material by diffusion of the water vapour through a stationary air film into the air stream.

The rate of drying is thus determined by the values of h, 􏲩T and A, and is not influenced by the
conditions inside the solid. h depends on the air velocity and the direction of flow of the air, and it has
been found that h = CG′0.8 where G′ is the mass rate of flow of air in kg/s m2.

The points B and E in Figure 16.2 represent conditions where the surface is no longer capable of
supplying sufficient free moisture to saturate the air in contact with it. Under these conditions, the rate
of drying depends very much on the mechanism by which the moisture from inside the material is
transferred to the surface.

Some of the sand at the surface was losses at high air velocity and the
mass was lost. This contribute to the error in this experiment
Conclusion

The surface temperature of wet solids by using thermocouple is 43˚C and

using psychrometric chart is 37.5˚C. The drying characteristics of a wet
solid are shown in graph 1 2 and 3. Each drying curve can be separated
into three region namely warm-up period, consant rate period and falling
rate period as shown in figure 2A in the lab manual.In a figure, we can
separate chart to three curves, fist curve is the warm-up rate, second
curve is the constant rate of drying and the last curve is the falling rate.