Comparison of Experimental and Numerical Drying Kinetics and Energy Consumption of a Deformable Saturated Porous Medium by Tempering and Stationary Drying Processes

Drying a deformable saturated porous medium using tempering or intermittent process is an innovative technique that can improve drying kinetics parameters, energy efficiency and dried product quality. The efficiency of intermittent drying was compared to continuous process in a simulation study by estimating the specific and net energy consumption, usually not considered in the developed models, especially in tempering drying. To approve the numerical results, an experimental investigation was carried out to monitor the Kinetics and energy consumption during the continuous and intermittent drying processes. Based on the modeling and experimental results, it was proved that intermittent drying with an intermittent ratio of 50% was very satisfying for the effective drying time reduction and, consequently, energy savings. This was explained by the tempering time effect on water redistribution in the clay sample. According to the obtained results tempering drying was more efficient than the continuous process in terms of kinetics, moisture redistribution and energy consumption.