Simulation of fabric drying based on heat and mass transfer theory in porous media

Abstract

Abstract Nowdays, the process of fabric drying inside the drying equipment is critical in practical production, this process affect the quality of dried fabric and energy utilization rate directly. There is a problem that the distribution of the percentage of water in fabric is uneven in drying process in practical production. In order to provide a method to solve this problem, this paper develop an finite element model(FE) on the platform of FLUENT by combining heat and mass transfer theory in porous media and transport theory of gas species organically, On the base of Mathis DHe steaming machine, the FE model is verified by carrying out an experiment.After that, this numerical model is used to study the process of fabric drying and the distribution of the percentage of water. The results indicate that the change of the weight of water in the fabric is nearly linear relationship with time and the percentage of water is low in the margin of fabric in the process of drying. In the later analysis, there have enough confidence that this finite element model can be used to analyse the structure and technological parameters of drying device.