Temperature Distribution of Hot Air Flow in Heating Zone for Drying Application

Abstract

The temperature distribution of hot air flow in heating zone of a rectangular duct has been investigated for drying application. The experimental set-up consists of a heater and a fan to generate the hot air flow in the range of temperature from 40 to 100°C and the range of air velocity between 1.20 and 1.57 m/s. An increase of the heater power supply increases the hot air temperature in the heating zone while an increase of air velocity forced by fan decreases the initial temperature at the same power supply provided to generate the hot air flow. The temperature distribution shows that the hot air temperature after transferring through air duct decreases with an increase of the length of the rectangular duct. These results are very important for the air flow temperature and velocity control strategy to apply for heating zone design in the drying process.