Mass Conductivity in Drying Capillary-Porous Colloidal Material Susceptible to Shrinkage

The mass transfer (diffusion) properties of a colloidal capillary-porous material (pears cut into plates 5 mm thick for convective drying) as a function of the moisture content of the material at different temperatures of the drying agent (air) were studied experimentally. Since the pear sample shrinks significantly during drying, the change in sample thickness during the process was taken into account when calculating the mass conductivity coefficient. At the same time, the linear shrinkage of the specified material was studied. The dependences of the mass conductivity coefficient on the moisture content of the material k = f(u) were obtained from drying curves based on the zonal method at a constant temperature of the drying agent t_dr. They represent dependences concave to the abscissa axis that increase with moisture content, which is typical of dried materials. The minimum values of the mass conductivity coefficient on the graphs k = f(u) vary from 0.3∙10–10 m²/s at 30°C to 2.2∙10–10 m²/s at 60°C. With a change in the moisture content of the material, the mass conductivity coefficient changes multiply. The shrinkage data for engineering calculations was described by equation. The possibility of describing the temperature dependence of the mass conductivity coefficient (moisture diffusion) by Arrhenius equation is shown. The values of the Arrhenius equation parameters are obtained.