Heat and Mass Transfer during Drying of Clay Ceramic Materials: A Three-Dimensional Analytical Study

Abstract

This work aims to study heat and mass transfer in solids with parallelepiped shape with particular reference to drying process. A transient three-dimensional mathematical model based on the Fick ́s and Fourier ́s Laws was developed to predict heat and mass transport in solids considering constant physical properties and convective boundary conditions at the surface of the solid. The analytical solution of the governing equations was obtained using the method of separation of variables. The study was applied in the drying of common ceramic bricks. Predicted results of the heating and drying kinetics and the moisture and temperature distributions inside the material during the process, are compared with experimental data and good agreement was obtained. It has been found that the vertices of the solid dry and heat first. This provokes thermal and hydric stresses inside the material, which may compromise the quality of the product after drying.