MODELING AND SIMULATION OF THE DRYING OF THIN SHEETS IN A CONTINUOUS INFRARED DRYER

The model gives the temperature and moisture distributions of the air, and of the moist sheet, as a function of time and distance in the dryer. The influence of the sheet's velocity and that of the radiant energy on the dryer performance as well as the effect of the moisture content of the entering sheet have been studied. A set of 27 experiments was carried out using the infrared dryer in order to calibrate the model. In these, the following three variables each had three operational levels: web velocity, initial web moisture and heating power. The model predictions agreed very well with the experimental data. Model predictions using arithmetic averages for the parameters, and parameters correlated with operational variables, are also presented and discussed.