Estimativa das propriedades térmicas efetivas de grãos em um secador de leito fixo

Abstract

Fixed bed grain drying is a complex process, where mass and heat transfer occur simultaneously, complicating the estimation of the effective thermal parameters, because they can go through significant variations along the drying process, due to moisture content variations. In this work, this problem was avoided by estimating the effective thermal parameters at the end of the drying process, when the grain moisture content reaches equilibrium, and mass transfer stops, persisting only the steady state heat transfer. In these conditions, the bed has a constant moisture content and the estimation of the effective thermal parameters can be obtained from the adjustment of a steadystate two-dimensional pseudohomogeneous model to several fixed bed temperature measurements at the end of the drying process. The results show that the strategy used to evaluate the effective thermal conductivity and the effective wall heat transfer coefficient was appropriate. In addition, among the grains analysed - soy, bean, corn and wheat-, soy presents the smallest values of effective radial conductivity, while wheat presents the greatest effective wall heat transfer value.