Experimental Study on Heat and Mass Transfer of Millet in a Fixed Furnace

Abstract

Abstract A series of experiments on the heat and mass transfer of millet particles are conducted in order to demonstrate the effects on drying characteristics of particles in this work. Experimental results illustrate that thermal conductivity between particles is significantly influenced by temperature and moisture content of millet particles. The temperature of particles in axial and radial direction increases because of the increase of inner wall temperature and decreases with the increase of air flow velocity. Moreover, the moisture content of particles near the inner wall has experienced a significant drop with the increase of inner wall temperature. As a consequence, the increase of air flow velocity results from the decrease of particles moisture content and drying rate of particles increases due to the increase of air flow velocity. Furthermore, the accumulated height of particles has barely influenced on the drying characteristics of millet particles.