Transport coefficients for low and high-rate mass transfer along a biological horizontal cylinder

Abstract

Knowledge of heat and mass transfer coefficients is essential for drying simulation studies or design of food and grain thermal processes, including drying. This work presents the full development of a segregated finite element method to solve convection-diffusion problems. The developed scheme allows solving the incompressible, steady-state Navier-Stokes equations and convective-diffusive problems with temperature and moisture dependent properties. The problem of simultaneous energy, momentum and species transfer along an infinite, horizontal cylinder under drying conditions in forced convection is presented, considering conditions normally found in biological material thermal treatment or drying. Numerical results for Nusselt and Sherwood numbers were compared against available empirical expressions; the results agreed within the associated experimental errors. For high rate mass transport processes, the proposed methodology allows to simulate drying conditions involving wall convective mass flux by a simple inclusion of the appropriated boundary conditions.