BEHAVIOR EVALUATION OF THE FLUID DYNAMICS OF A DRYING PROCESS TO OBTAIN ROOF TILES

Abstract

Currently, several researches have been developed on the drying of ceramic materials, most of which are carried out experimentally. This process requires high investments and energy consumption, resulting in high costs for companies in the sector. The drying process can be defined as a unit operation that consists of removing water from porous materials through heat transfer. So, aiming at a better cost benefit, it is common to use theoretical solutions that allow, with relative ease of replication and low cost, to change operational and geometric conditions of the dryer or drying object. In this sense, this work aims to predict the drying process of a ceramic tile in a kiln via computational fluid dynamics (CFD). To carry out the simulations, the commercial package Ansys CFX® 22.R1 was used. For a drying temperature of 82,7 °C, the results of drying and heating kinetics, product moisture content, oven air velocity and pressure are displayed and analyzed. A comparison between predicted and experimental data of the average moisture content of the tile throughout the process was performed and a good agreement was obtained.