Experimental studies have been conducted to investigate the wet porous material convective air-drying characteristics. An experimental setup is designed and constructed to examine the air-drying process of a wet sand layer, and it allows dynamic measurements of both the sand layer weight and temperature. Hot air flows down towards the sand layer upper surface to realize a uniform drying of it and multiple thermocouples are embedded in the sand layer to evaluate its temperature distribution. Experiments are carried out for three sand layer thicknesses of 2, 4 and 8 mm and for three hot air temperatures of 45, 60 and 75 °C. Water film evaporation experiments are also performed to obtain the convective heat and mass transfer coefficients, which are then used for the lumped parameter analysis of the sand layer heat and mass transfer. The results show that in the water film evaporation experiment, the water temperature initially increases and then remains constant at the air wet-bulb temperature for a long period of time until the water all evaporates. In the sand layer drying experiment, however, the sand layer temperature continues to increase throughout the drying process, which can be divided into three stages, i.e. the initial rapid, intermediate slow, and final rapid increase stages. The lumped parameter method is employed to analyze the sand layer heat transfer because of the small sand layer thickness. Such analysis uses the heat transfer coefficient obtained in the water film evaporation experiment and the sand layer temperature increasing rate to calculate the sand layer moisture content and drying rate. The obtained results agree well with the experimental data. The evolution of water film cover fraction on the sand layer upper surface during drying is also discussed by assuming that the water evaporation occurs mainly at the sand layer upper surface at the drying stage at which the sand layer upper surface is fully wet or partly wet.