Statistical Analysis of a Continuous Infrared Dryer

Abstract

A combination of factorially designed experiments, mathematical modeling, and statistics is used to analyze the continuous drying of a cotton web by infrared radiation. Linear relationships between operational parameters and output variables are derived. The most important parameters affecting the drying are the distance between the emitters and the web, the emitters' temperature, and the web speed. With this dryer, heat transfer by convection is much less important than by radiation, so air is mainly used to evacuate the water vapor.