Energy Consumption and Drying Time Optimization of Convective Drying for Performance Improvement: Response Surface Methodology and Lattice Boltzmann Method

In this paper, an optimization procedure is presented by response surface method to optimize the temperature and velocity of drying air and thickness of the moist object inside the dryer. The optimization procedure is performed to determine the minimum drying time and energy consumption as responses. A two-dimensional (2D) numerical solution is accomplished to analyze coupled heat and mass transfer occurring during drying of an apple slice. The air flow and the moist object are solved conjugate, while the heat and mass transfer equations are solved coupled together using lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). Beside this, a sensitivity analysis is executed to calculate the sensitivity of the responses (drying time and energy consumption) to the control factors. Results reveal that the real optimized parameters for the minimum drying time and energy consumption are temperature (T = 80 °C), velocity (V = 0.10404 m/s), and thickness ratio (TR = 0.1). The results of numerical solution are compared to the experimental results, presenting a reasonable agreement. This analysis could be useful in food drying.