Pneumatic Drying of Solid Particle: Experimental and Model Comparison

Abstract

This article presents a mathematical model approach to studying the drying phenomena of solid particle in a pneumatic (flash) dryer. The analysis is focused on the pneumatic momentum, mass, and heat balance of the solid particle when it moves inside the reactor. A fixed bed fluidization model was used to calculate the forces balance on the single solid particle. By solving mass and heat balance occurred in the particle, the water/liquid removal efficiency can be calculated. To validate the model calculations, we conducted a set of experiments and compared the simulation with the experimental data. High-moisture, natural concrete sand, the additional material for portland cement, was used and dried along a vertical cylindrical tube with length of 2 m and diameter of 6.68 cm. The drying gas was supplied by a high-capacity air blower which was connected to the burner to produce 120 m3/h of drying gas with maximum temperature of 800°C.