Parametric numerical study for energy savings in industrial drying process

Abstract

A numerical study on the shape of a dryer was conducted with the aim of reducing the energy consumed in the actual industrial drying process. We measured the temperature distributions over the air knives in the dryer for three cases of power consumption (100%, 81%, and 67%). The measured temperature values were used as applied boundary conditions in the numerical model. To investigate the shape of the energy efficient model, three cases of the dryer’s outlet height, distance between the nozzles and the drying material, height of the dryer, and the number of heaters were selected as the geometric design parameters (X1, X2, X3). For comparing the thermal performance in each case, the temperature distribution over the conveyer line through which the drying material passes, and the inside of the dryer, was also analyzed using numerical simulations. As a result, the proposed shape of the dryer is expected to reduce power consumption while maintaining the thermal performance of the existing dryer.