Analysis of the Propagation of Temperature and Thermal Conductivity of Sawdust Pyrolysis Process with Modeling Fea and Experiment

Abstract

The study uses densified sawdust with heat propagation and thermal conductivity to achieve better pyrolysis and gasification processes. Analysis of sawdust's heat propagation and thermal conductivity during pyrolysis was developed with Finite Element Analysis (FEA). The thermal conductivity values of sawdust (k) obtained from FEA are 1.49, 1.3, 1.1, and 0.7 W/m C considering the sawdust heated with a triggering temperature (T0) 535 ºC and reaches a constant temperature of T1 = 265 ºC, T2 = 165 ºC, T3 = 115, and T4 = 95 ºC respectively after 20 minutes. The temperature distribution of sawdust heated shows between the experimental and FEA results is quite the same; however, differences on graph T1 show the experimental thermal conductivity (k) value is distinct from the simulated thermal conductivity (k) value due to a significant change that occurred as sawdust transformed into charcoal at minute 70, where the distance between point T1 and the trigger point (T0) is 40mm and after 180 minutes the sawdust had turned into charcoal completely. Furthermore, 31 grams (6.46%) of sawdust underwent pyrolysis in this experiment. The findings can aid future research and development in this field and provide valuable insight into the duration of time a bio stove utilizing compacted sawdust can produce a sustainable flame and be used as a reference for future experiments.