Numerical and Experimental Fractal Pore Network Study on Drying of Porous Media: Numerical Simulation

Abstract

In order to validate the model established in reference [1], a drying experimental study was conducted, and numerical simulation was carried out under the same environmental condition. The experiment and simulation results indicated that the fractal pore network model could explain the drying process of real porous media effectively, the drying curve of fractal models was more consistent with the real drying curve than that of regular models, and its moisture fields well reflected the drying kinetics characteristic of real porous media. There was no correlation between the pore fractal dimension and the drying time, and the simulation result of unsteady-state heat transfer was more consistent with a real drying process than that of steady-state heat transfer for the convective thermal drying.