Modeling Simultaneous Heat and Mass Transfer in an Isotropic Sphere-A Finite Element Approach Kamyar Haghighi, L. J. Segerlind ABSTRACT finite element formulation is used to obtain numerical solutions to the simultaneous moisture and heat diffusion equations describing the moietire removal and heat intake process for an isotropie sphere. The model is used to solve a sample problem of drying a soybean kernel. The distribution and. gradients of temperature and moisture dveloped inside the kernel during the drying process are established. The predicted drying curve for the soybean model compared favorably with “experimental results in the literature. This technique is very powerful in explaining the complicated coupled phenomena of heat and mass trancter i general, and drying of biomaterials in particular. INTRODUCTION Artificial drying of biological products is one of the most common methods of preservation. Proper drying procedures climinate the potential of spoilage during subsequent storage and help to improve the quality of the product. Understanding and controlling the drying process is also important in establishing improved desiges guidelines for drying systems. It would be advantageous heated air dryers could be designed and operated in ways to reduce or minimize drying damage to biological products. This requires an accurate description of the Grying mechanism, Considerable theoretical and experimental work has been done in past decades to describe the drying characteristics of biological materials in. general, and cereal grains, in particulas. Becket atx! Sallans (1953), Hall and Rodrigues-Arias (1958), Hustrulid and Flikke (1989), Pahic and Henderson (1961), Henderson and Perry (1967), Hamdy and Barre (1970), and others suggested that moisture moves through cereal grains by the mechanism of diffusion. Chittenden and Hustrulid (1966), Young and Whitaker (1971), and Husain et al (1973) also assumed that diffusion is the rate controlling mechanism during drying of biological products. The effect of shrinkage on moisture diffusion during drying of biological products was studied by Misra and ‘Young (1980). ‘They assumed that changer in moisture Article way submited for publication in June, 1987; reyiened and apprined ‘or publicsion ty the Pood and. Process Engineering, Inuit of th ASAE tn Devember, 1987 Unter The authors are: KAMYAR HAGHIGHI, Assistant Profesor, fand LJ. SEGERLIND. Profesor, Agricultural Engineering Dept Micha State Univers, E. Lancing, Ml Vol. 312):March-Apri, 19884 © 1988 American Society of Agricultural Engineers OO1-2381/88/3102-629802.00 content dominate temperature effects on the physical anid niechanical properties ofthe grain and therefore the kernels shrink primarily due to moisture migration. They further assumed that any dilation due to high temperature drying is negligible Discussing some of the limitations of diffusion - tke theories for drying of a granular porous medium, Ceaglske and Hougen (1937), Hougen et al. (1940), and Whitaker and Chou (1983). postulated. that other mechanism such as capillarty, gravity, and external pressure (olirinkaye) may exist. They, therefore, suggested that caution should be exercised whe characterizing moisture movement by the diffusion equation. But, these studies were focused primarily on sand drying and they have not been used 10 describe grain drying. More sophisticated models have been derived ithe from a classical (mechanistic) approach (Philip and DeVries, 1957; DeVries, 1958; Krischer, 1963; and vers) or from the non-equilibrium thermodynamics (Luikov, 1964, 1966 a-b, 1975; and Luikov and Mikhailov, 1965). Flux. ‘equations based on the phenomenological theory of irreversible thermodynamics have also been applied to grain drying (Fortes and Okos. 1981a-b). Considering the biological variations in foods and their effect on material properties (such as moisture ‘iftusivity), Chirife (1983) questioned the real need for refined mathematical models unless they are heavily supported by experimental determinations. Toei (1983) studied the drying rates and moisture, temperature, and pressure distribution ina nonhygroscopic capillary porous body. He concluded that for the cellular mmaterials-e.g..foodstuffs-the drying mechanism is far more complicated, since the structures are heterogeneous and the body shrinks with loss of water. Toe! (1943) further suggested that studies on this subject, will have to be developed in connection with the physical snd chemival changes of materials with drying, Reviewing different drying models, Keey (1972) and Rosen and Hayakawa (1977) concluded that the assumption of some overriding kinetic mechanism may be unduly restrictive. particularly fr food systems which are complex structures. Some of the semi-theoretical and empirical models for grain drying have been reviewed by SharaF-Eldeen et al. (1979), Rosen and Hayakawa (1977), and Sokhansanj and Bruce (1986). Whitaker et al. (1969) concluded that the moisture diffusion equation alone is inadequate for describing the moisture movement process completely. Absor plivi Ot evolution of water by a solid results in evolution or absorption of the heat. ‘This heat diffuses through the solid, causing changes in temperature, which affect the ability of solid to absorb or evolve water (Whitney and 69 a pasar poy p ssopas uDEDWY 3p eda yoe0p 1g “sposug e961 “sorgg0 “40 Ten TE 104) AVY 2030 SNOL doef opI2e Sia,Porterfield, 1968). Thus the transfer of moisture and heat are coupled together and in general, should be considered simultaneously. ‘Chen and Johnson (1969) and Husain et al. (1973) modified Luikov's equations to represent simultaneous heat and moisture transfer during forced drying of biological materials, Finite difference technique was used by Husain et al. (1973) to solve the simultaneous hheat and mass diffusion equations. The simulation model was then applied to predict drying characteristics ‘of rough rive and the prediction agreed well with the experimental data. In a recent study by Sokhansanj and Bruce (1987) a ‘conduction model was proposed which assumed moisture diffuses to the outer boundaries of the kernel in liquid form and the evaporation takes place only at the surface of the grain, This assumption is supported by the work of | Fortes et al, (1981) in wheat drying and rewetting experiments. For rewetting conditions, Fortes et al (1981) concluded that “liguid mover numerically observed to be dominant which is probably why reasonably good fits to data for the early stages of drying have been obtained in the past work, where only liquid diffusion was considered.” The finite clement method, a powerful numerical technique for solving differential equations, has become very popular. The method assumes that any continuous {quantity such as temperature, can be approximated by a discrete model composed of a set of piecewise continuous functions defined over a finite number of subdomains or lements, (Segerlind, 1984), Elements are connected at nodal points along the boundaries and their equations fare obtained by minimizing a functional of the physical problem, ‘The finite element technique provides the Nexibility and versatility necessary for the analysis of stich continuum problems where material belvior, configuration, and boundary and loading conditions are Complex. Coupled heat and mass flow equations for partially saturated soil was solved by Sidiropoulos and T/mopontos (1983) using the finite element method. But, the study was limited to the simple ease of one- dimensional flow problems The objective of this study is to numerically study the phenomenon of coupled moisture and heat transfer ‘within an isotrople sphere by use of the finite element method, The two-dimensional time-dependent axisymmetric model is summarized fist. Discussed next is the application of this model to drying of soybean kernel. Special emphasis is placed on the detailed description of the finite element procedure for solving the ‘coupled equations, since it is one of the major focus points of this study. In addition, this detailed information is not available in the literature for two- dimensional problems governed by coupled differential ‘equations, THEORETICAL ANALYSIS In the Finite element method, the clement equations c developed from the governing differential equations cither by obtaining the variational statement or functional of the physical problem or by transforming the governing equation by use of Galerkin’s method. This formulation uses the variational approach. 20 Governing Equations ‘Since the temperature distribution within the sphere ‘may not be uniform, simultaneous equations of moisture and heat diffusion are needed to. describe moisture ‘movement within the sphere. ‘The drying model presented here is very similar to the modified Luikov's equations used by Husain et al. (19/3). Cylindrical coordinates ate employed so that the same computer progiam can be used in the future fo model axisymmetsie hon-spherical bodies, without the need for changing the entire formulation. Accuming constant material properties, the mathematical model characterizing ‘moisture and heat diffusion in a sphere is given by Crank (1964) as: 24 moisture concentration temperature 12 = radial and vertical coordinate directions D. = moisture diffusivity thermal conductivity specific heat density L._ = latent heat of vaporization of water Initial and boundary conditions for the governing equations [1] and [2] are: 1. The sphere is at rivistare initially ((—0) uniform temperature and ren, [31 2. for 120 and at the surface (r=R) ) 1 hy (M = Mon = 0 a surface mass transter coefficient ambient moisture content for (20 and at the surface (r= R) + Tete... 15] where = surface heat transfer evel T_ = ambient temperature Variational Tn most finite element formulations the integral of nimized. This functional possesses the \ funetion which makes it «minimum also satisfies the governing differential equation and the boundary conditions. Using variational calculus (Segerlind, 1984) the functional form of the governing TRANSACHIONS of the ASAEequations [1] and [2] is 24 (ML + 22M, % peep aie 20M) ag av 4 2 PBEM MS? dS coc 18) ty abe ee at aw anf hype BER ee AE)? ap My woot tw AE re aT ay BM) + m2" ry aves Ser tay?as 171 where 'V= volume of the body S= boundary ‘The solution of the boundary value problem stated in [1] and [| is obtained by finding the stationary (or minimum) value of the functionals x, and y; in [6] and {7] with respect to the set of nodal values {M} and {T} ‘The finite element method is a numerical technique based on the minimization of these functionals over a set ol subregions or elements. ions [6] and [7] are now written as: Ye E fat) {TWD fal aus) aM) ie ay fier Fe neo (m2) 2m) le) MZ]. [8 soo go EH (Tenge ame) arte 4 rave, te) ~be say ape hy STAY “9 +f, 5 (x20) arse) ¢ 72) as). (9) Where the superscripts (e) indicate the elements or subregions and E is the total number of elements and | wi E 3] 09 bole] 4 wi-[3 3] nay (13) wd Vol. 312):March.Apei, 1984 x and are minimized when oe oo ua ea? “2, a fe) us) Element Equations ‘The moisture and temperature within each element, Mo! and T, ate approsimated by algebraic interpolation polynomials relating them to clement nodal valuec of moisture and temperature, {M| and. (TT, (Zienkiewicz, 1971), oF wis) «pws fae} i164 Tele (nc fry... 7 ‘where [Nis the matrix of shape functions. Using simplex trangular axisymmetric elements as shown in Fig. 1, [16] and [17] become Me =a, NN 118) 1 enn, #N1,+859, 109) where Ne heyebeeen) 1 2a I * bt qa) oe a (et Be t) : rr oot