Heat Transfer and Computational Simulations on the Drying Process of a Kiln

In this paper, the analytical and computational results are presented for a large-scale ceramic-tiles drying kiln. A lumped-parameter model was initially derived for the drying process of the kiln. This has led to the development of mathematical models for the energy conservation and convective heat and mass transfer drying process. Diffusion on the boundary layers of the tiles was also derived based on the basis of moisture isotherm, drying curve and different temperature profiles. This also takes into consideration the internal moisture transportation. The developed partial differential equations were discretized using the central-difference approximation method, which were further verified by a computational fluid-dynamics solver and the Gauss-Siedel iterative method. The modelling and simulations performed on the partial differential equations give possible auxiliary energy conservation and improvement on the drying process of the kiln.