Inverse Finite Element Analysis of Technological Processes of Heat and Mass Transport in Agricultural and Forest Products

Abstract

Due to complexity of agricultural and forest products, the mathematical model coefficients are often dubious, as experimental determination of their values leads to erroneous results. To solve this problem an inverse finite element analysis software was developed to identify coefficient values of the heat and mass transport model and to predict and visualize the processes. The model reflected 3D structure of investigated systems comprising the heat conduction and moisture diffusion in heterogeneous, anisotropic, and irregularly shaped products represented by wood and cereal grain kernels. Test cases used to validate the software covered identification of the thermal conductivity, convective heat transfer coefficient, diffusion coefficient, equilibrium moisture content, and convective mass transfer coefficient in pine and beech wood, and also in corn. Implementation of the proposed optimization algorithm and improvement of the software functionality resulted in more effective and accurate identification of the coefficient values, demonstrated by increased accuracy and reliability of predicting the heat conduction and water diffusion processes.