Investigation of grain mass flow in a mixed flow dryer

Abstract

The numerical modeling of grain drying is a topic of great relevance to post-harvest engineering. The required type of drying process depends on the quantity of grain to be dried and the required quality of the grain. The choice of the drying system depends on the operating parameters of the drying process. The granular flow pattern of the material exerts a significant influence on the drying process. Post-harvest drying of grain is essential for better storage, handling, and processing. Therefore, it is important to know the material behavior that controls the particle flow patterns of grain in the drying equipment to guarantee the product quality and to optimize the drying process conditions. The discrete element method (DEM) was applied to investigate the particle flow pattern of wheat through a mixed-flow dryer (MFD) without airflow, and the findings were compared with experimental results in this work. The investigations were performed using dry wheat with 14wb% moisture content.