Simulation and Model Validation of a Pneumatic Conveying Drying for Wood Dust Particles

Purpose: The simulation model of a pneumatic conveying drying (PCD) for sawdust was developed and verified with the experiments. Method: The thermal behavior and mass transfer of a PCD were modeled and investigated by comparing the experimental results given by a reference (Kamei et al. 1952) to validate the model. Momentum, energy and mass balance, one dimensional first order ordinary differential equations, were coded and solved into Matlab V. 7.1.0 (2009). Results: The simulation results showed that the moisture content reduced from 194% to 40% (dry basis), air temperature decreased from $512^{\circ}C$ to $128^{\circ}C$ with the particle residence time of 0.7 seconds. The statistical indicators, root mean square error and R-squared, were calculated to be 0.079, and 0.998, respectively, between the measured and predicted values of moisture content. The relative error between the measured and predicted values of the final pressured drop, air temperature, and air velocity were only 8.96%, 0.39% and 1.05% respectively. Conclusions: The predicted moisture content, final temperature, and pressure drop values were in good agreement with the experimental results. The developed model can be used for design and estimation of PCD system for drying of wood dust particles.