Journal of Food Engineering 59 (2003) 413420 www.elsevier.

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Thermo-uid-dynamic investigation of a dryer, using numerical and experimental approach

A. Ficarella, A. Perago *, G. Starace, D. Laforgia
Department of Engineering for Innovation, Research Center for Energy and Environment, University of Lecce, via per Arnesano, I-73100 Lecce, Italy Received 6 August 2002; accepted 8 December 2002

Abstract The thermo-uid-dynamic behavior of a dryer, used for the production of a special kind of alimentary pasta (lasagna), was analyzed, performing both numerical simulations and experimental investigations, in order to improve the dryer thermal performance. In particular, the achievable improvements in terms of temperature distribution, obtained by modifying the control of air distribution and the geometry of air distribution channels, were analyzed. The numerical simulation suggested the design of some modications of the actual dryer. Particularly, the air distribution was improved and the natural vertical stratication of the drying air was reduced, implementing a new geometrical conguration with some vertical and horizontal panels. An experimental campaign on the dryer was carried out, conrming the trends obtained using the computer code. The percentage of pasta defects was reduced from 30% down to 10% thanks to a more controlled air distribution. 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction The process of drying is one of the oldest and common operations for the pasta production. This complex process has been carried out rst on drying racks, and industrially over the past decades by means of dryers. Hundreds of dierent types of dryers have been designed and constructed to achieve the important goal of the process: assure controlled properties to the pasta in terms of porosity, uniformity, resistance and organoleptic characteristics (Yliniemi, 1999). The drying process is the last step of pasta manufactures. It plays the most important role and gives to the pasta the nal characteristics in terms of production uniformity, and avor (Medvedev, Malandeeva, Argianova, & Semko, 1984; Pavan, 1979; Portesi, 1991; Rizvi, 1995). In order to be ecient in terms of production uniformity, the drying process needs to be carried out taking into account the thermo-uid-dynamic behavior of the dryer. In the present work, a numerical modeling was rst carried out to quantify the inuence of the parameters on the optimization and to test the improved

proposed solutions. Then, an experimental campaign was carried out in order to compare the results obtained with the numerical models to improve the drying process. 2. The topic This investigation was originated from some defects of the produced pasta (properly named lasagna), revealed at the end of the drying process. Exiting the dryer, the lasagna sheets appeared not uniformly dried and this was unacceptable, even if the taste was perfect. This defect aected almost 30% of the product, increasing the industrial cost and the end-user price. The analysis of the manufactured pasta showed different behavior, considering dierent sheets of lasagna produced with the same drying process. Some sheets were perfectly dried, some other too much and some else had kept an abnormal percentage of moisture inside, not uniformly distributed in its volume. In order to understand the problem, the dryers uid-dynamic behavior was investigated. The real causes of the non-uniformity in the drying process were understood and some solutions were designed and numerically tested to quantify the improvement in terms of air distribution in the dryer for a better production quality.

Corresponding author. E-mail address: alessandro.perago@unile.it (A. Perago).

0260-8774/03/$ - see front matter 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0260-8774(02)00500-9

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Nomenclature i v T K m index velocity (m/s) temperature (K) heat power (W) mass (kg) c h x k S specic heat at constant pressure (J/(kg K)) time (s) water content of pasta (kg H2 O/kg pasta) heat transfer coecient (W/(m2 K)) heat transfer surface (m2 )

3. The dryer The analyzed dryer consisted of three modules. In the inner volume, the lasagnas to be dried were carried on a belt and lay on a pile of 95 wood and metal thin supports. These products were dried by high temperature air cross ow, generated by 8 fans per module located as in Fig. 1. The supports were made of a wood frame and a wire net to allow the pasta to come in a good contact with the air ow. The air ow was supplied to the plenum on the delivery-side of the fans and then entered the lasagna piles in a perpendicular direction with respect to the dryer longitudinal axis. The shape of the supports does not allow the air ow to pass through two adjacent piles. Another plenum was located on the suction side of the fans that collected humid air coming from the zone occupied by the pasta. Both plena are provided with sharp corners, which cause the presence of some recirculating zones. Before entering the delivery-side plenum, the air passed through a heat exchanger, heated by warm water. The plenum on the suction-side of the fan was provided with an air extractor electronically driven by a humidity sensor: as the relative humidity was higher than the set point, the humid air was moved away in such a quantity that a proper level of humidity was left in the air and the set value could be reached before the air cycle started again. The temperature control inside the dryer was operated through one transducer per fan set. This transducer reads the air temperature value on the delivery-side of the fans and, according to the set value, directly acts on the hot water ow rate passing through the coils. The lasagna support frames lay on a belt and were carried for the whole length of the dryer, crossing its three, modules and being exposed to the warm and dry air. The drying process can be operated statically or dynamically, depending on the fact that the piles are moved intermittently or continuously on the belt.
Air channel

Point 1 Heat Exchanger

Fans

Point 2

Plan View

Fan 4

Fan 3 Heat Exchanger

Fan 2

Fan 1 Section A-A

Fig. 1. Plan and vertical views of the dryer (dimensions in mm).

4. Numerical modeling To perform the simulation of the uid dynamic behavior of the dryer, the Fluent code (Fluent, 1998), based on a nite volume discretization, was used. For accurate simulations it is necessary to take into account

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that takes into account the air heating power K3 kS Tair;1 Tpasta;1 4

that takes into account the heat losses through the dryer walls K4 mH2 O 606:5 0:305Tpasta;2 Tpasta;1 h 5

that takes into account the latent heat power, being the expression in brackets the Regnault latent heat for the water contained in saturated air K4 3 cwater vapor x1 Tpasta;2 Tpasta;1 mH2 O hx2 x1 6

Fig. 2. The thermometer and the anemometer.

the following phenomena: enthalpy exchange during the drying process; pressure losses in the air gap of the frames that support the pasta sheets; enthalpy ows in the dryer heat exchangers; head of the fans. In particular, modeling the pressure losses in the air gaps between two supporting frames needed some simplications: a detailed modeling of the very narrow gaps should be very expensive in terms of CPU time as the number of computational cells should increase dramatically (Fig. 2). An estimation of the energy transferred from air to the pasta sheets was done taking into consideration the following data: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Inlet and outlet moisture level of the pasta. Drying time. Initial and nal air temperature. Overall heat losses. Quantity of pasta in the dryer.

that takes into account the vapor heating power at the Tpasta;2 saturation temperature. The calculated parameters used as inputs for the numerical simulation are shown in Table 1. The turbulence model used was the k e model (Fluent, 1998). A two-dimensional geometry was rst employed to analyze the possible improvements on horizontal planes. A three-dimensional model was then used to reduce the stratication due to the relevant thermal dierence in the vertical direction. The three-dimensional model allowed a deeper insight of the dryers thermo-uid-dynamics. 4.1. Experimental setup A RotronicZH Series Thermometer and a Mini CTA 54T30 Dantec Hot Wire Anemometer were used to collect both temperature and velocity at dierent
Table 1 Input parameters in the simulation model Pasta Frames Energy quantity transferred to the pasta during the process Pressure lossesa in the longitudinal and transverse directions Pressure lossesa in the vertical direction Overall heat transfer coecientb on the coils Pressure lossesc coecient in the radiator Temperature of the coil Head 1980 W/m3

If Tair;1 the temperature of the air coming out from the coils, Tpasta;1 and Tpasta;2 are respectively the temperatures of the pasta before and after the drying process, and assuming that the drying process has an eciency of 1/3 (that is the air quantity per unit kg of water in the pasta must be actually three times greater than the theoretical one), the heat power to be transferred to the air to remove a m mass of water per second from the pasta can be calculated as the sum Eq. (6) of the ve terms in equation from Eqs. (2)(6): X K Ki 1
i

2.97 m1

4.17 m1 1230 W/(m2 K)

Heat exchanger

343 K 78 Pa

mdry air cpasta Tair;1 Tpasta;1 h that takes into account the pasta heating power K1 K2 3
0 mH2 O cair Tpasta ;2 Tpasta;1 x2 x1 h

Fan
a

Expressed as coecient of dissipated kinetic energy of the ow per unit of length. b This coecient has been calculated taking as reference area the transverse surface of the coils in agreement with the uent schematization. c Expressed as coecient of dissipated kinetic energy of the ow.

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A. Ficarella et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 59 (2003) 413420 Table 3 Performed numerical simulations Case 1:20 20 X 420 X DC-10 kHz 6V Pt100 X 243343 K 1% 0.2% <15 s Head value referred to 78 Pa Fans 1 B1 2 3 4 Geometric scheme

Table 2 Anemometer and thermometer characteristics Anemometer Bridge ratio Max resistance bridge Operating resistance Response frequency Output maximum voltage Thermometer Sensor type Measurement range Tollerance Reproducibility Response time

locations in the dryer (measuring points are shown as Points 1 and 2 in Fig. 1). Both instruments were placed on a rigid PVC tube (Fig. 2). The transducers were directly faced to the air ows (alternatively on the suction and delivery sides of the fans) inside of the dryer module. The instruments were positioned parallel to the main air ow direction and data were collected at dierent vertical locations with a spatial resolution of 0.2 m, for the whole height of the dryer. The necessary signal and supply wire connections were made passing through the PVC tube with no risk of appreciable cable interference with the ow. In order to preserve the right output of the thermometer a cooling air ow was provided in its envelope and a check was done for the temperature of the air coming out of it. The instrumentation main characteristics are shown in Table 2. 5. Improved solutions Several analyses were made on the original dryer, then many structural modications were designed and investigated. The examined modications of the dryer air distribution had to be the ones which inuenced most the vertical temperature stratication with the aim to improve the uniformity of the pasta drying. The setup conditions of the numerical simulations are summarized in Table 3 and each setup condition was varied following three strategies: 1. The fan speed modications resulting in reduced head with reference to the value of 78 Pa. 2. The geometrical modications consisting in the mounting of metal sheets smoothing the plena corners (Fig. 1). 3. The mounting of vertical and horizontal panels. Case B1 was the original dryer and this was taken as a reference case. In Case B8 the reported value of )1.00

B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 B7 B8 B9

0.70 0.30 0.30 )1.00

0.70 0.70 0.70 0.70 0.30 0.30 )1.00 0.30 0.30 0.70

As above As above As above As above As above As above As above Solutions with corners

B10

Solution with corners and vertical and horizontal panels

means that an inversion of the fan rotation was simulated. In Case B9 llets at the corner were considered. In Case B10 both llets at the corners and vertical and horizontal panels were simulated.

6. Discussion of results 6.1. The reference case (called B1 on Table 3) The actual dryer conguration showed some defects in the uniformity of the temperature distribution both in the horizontal and vertical planes. Fig. 3 shows that the lowest temperatures were reached at the corners of the suction side. In the vicinity of the corners inside the frame piles, a high probability of low temperature and velocities was present with the consequence of an inecient drying of the lasagnas at those locations.

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are presented in the form of two indexes, dened from the following equations: vm ivel 7 vmax vmin itemp Tm Tmax Tmin 8

Fig. 3. Static temperature distribution for Case B1.

In Eqs. (7) and (8), subscript m indicates the arithmetic mean value in the vertical direction at the considered location. The higher is the index value, the better is the thermo-uid-dynamic uniformity of the dryer. The indexes were computed for the numerical case under investigation and the results were compared in Figs. 5 and 6. The dierence between the calculated and measured indexes, both in temperature and velocity, were about 15% and this can be considered a good validation of the numerical modeling. 6.2. General observations The overall comparison of numerical data, obtained with the dierent simulations, allowed to evaluate which one among the design solutions presented the best temperature uniformity. Looking at the diagrams in Fig. 7, showing the previously dened temperature index for the dierent cases, the best solution can be identied in
25 20 Experimental Simulated

The vertical temperature stratication was high as the dierence in temperature between the upper and the lower sections was about 5 K. In addition, an asymmetric air distribution in terms of ow rates was also present (Fig. 4). The frames and the lasagnas closest to the fans were supplied with a too high air ow, resulting in high drying rate. This was the reason of the brittleness of the lasagnas. The lack of uniformity in the air supply could be also concluded from the dierent thermal behavior of the air owing through the supporting frames. The temperature gradient between the inlet and the outlet of the frame channel was actually dierent from pile to pile. A vertical component of the velocity was also present, due to the natural behavior of the warm air to move towards the top of the dryer. The experimental investigations were carried out sweeping the transducers along a vertical axis at the locations shown in Fig. 1. The collected measurements

Velocity index

15 10 5 0

1 Measuring Point

Fig. 5. Velocity indexes comparison for Case B1.

25 20 15 10 5 0 Experimental Simulated

Temperature index

1 Measuring Point

Fig. 4. Velocity distribution for Case B1.

Fig. 6. Temperature indexes comparison for Case B1.

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CASEB1

horizontal panels were designed to reduce dramatically the vertical temperature stratication. In Fig. 8 the temperature dierence between the upper and lower layers was decreased from more than 5 K down to 3 K and this value remained constant also at the outlet of the drying zone for all the supporting piles. In Fig. 9 the better uid-dynamic behavior of the air can be observed compared with Fig. 4. This is due to the absence of the perturbations and pressure losses caused by the corners and to the presence of the vertical panels guiding the air towards and outside the supporting piles. The air ow rates passing through the piles are very similar and no one is appreciably favored. The indicated geometrical modications were, implemented, producing a real improvement in the dryers productivity. The new conguration of the dryer is shown in Fig. 10. The new measuring points are represented both in the suction and in the delivery plena. Two measuring

CASEB2

CASEB3

CASEB4

CASEB5
y = 2.075 y = 1.15 y = 0.225

CASEB6

CASEB7

CASEB8

CASEB9

CASEB10

10

20

30

Temperature index
Fig. 7. Temperature indexes comparison at dierent positions where y is the transverse coordinate (see also Figs. 3 and 4).

the Case B10. From the index analysis, some information is obtained about the inuence of the optimizing actions. It is clear that the geometrical measures undertaken are more decisive than the fan speed control. 6.3. Case B10 The geometrical conguration taken into consideration for case B10 came from the analysis of the previous cases. Three dierent modications versus the lack of air distribution uniformity were taken: curved panels were disposed to smooth the corners eliminating the recirculating zones in the suction and delivery-sides of the fans; vertical conformed panels were introduced to make the ow rates through the supporting frames as uniform as possible;

Fig. 8. Static temperature distribution for Case B10.

Fig. 9. Velocity distribution for Case B10.

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Fillet

419

Temperature index

20 15 10 5 0
3

Experimental Simulated

Point 3

Measuring Point

Fig. 12. Temperature indexes for Case B10.

Point 4

those of Case B1 (Figs. 5 and 6), the dierences between computed and measured values were relatively lower. This was certainly due to the improvements in terms of uniformity of the air distribution, that is to the reduced dierence between maximum and minimum values parameters.
Point 5

7. Conclusions
Vertical panel

Point 6

Fig. 10. Plan view of the modied dryer. Only vertical planes are visible in this view.

points were chosen for each side of the fans: the rst in the vicinity of the vertical panel and the other close to the llet. In Figs. 11 and 12, the previously dened temperature and velocity indexes are presented, showing a good agreement with the numerical predictions. Even if the velocity and temperature indexes were higher than

The thermo-uid-dynamics behavior of a dryer, used for the production of a special kind of alimentary pasta (lasagna) was analyzed, performing both numerical simulations and experimental investigations, in order to improve the dryer thermal performance and to optimize the process. The vertical temperature gradient predicted by the numerical simulations and actually measured, whose presence was found as the main cause of pasta defects, was noticeably reduced. Mounting horizontal and vertical panels as well as smooth corners both in suction and delivery plena made the lasagna waste decrease from 30% down to 10%. This was due to a more controlled air distribution. This results supports a deeply use of uid-dynamic analysis in such a sector to improve quality of products and energy consumptions.

Acknowledgements
25 20 Experimental Simulated

Velocity index

15 10 5 0 3 4 5 Measuring Point 6

This work was possible thanks to the nancial support of COOPAS Scrl in Maglie, Regione Puglia and European Union.

References
Fluent Inc. (1998). Fluent Users Guide. Lebanon, USA. Medvedev, G. M., Malandeeva, N. I., Argianova, I. V., & Semko, V. T. (1984). The inuence of the drying temperature on the physical properties and quality of the semimanufactured products in the alimentary pasta production process (Inuenza della temperatura

Fig. 11. Velocity indexes for Case B10.

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A. Ficarella et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 59 (2003) 413420 Portesi, G. (1991). The industry of the alimentary pasta (Lindustria della pasta alimentare, Italian language), Mondadori, Milano, Italy. Rizvi, S. S. (1995). Thermodynamic properties of foods in dehydration. In M. A. Rao, & S. S. Rizvi (Eds.), Engineering properties of foods. New York, USA: Marcel Dekker. Yliniemi, L. (1999). Advanced Control of a Rotary Dryer. Academic Dissertation, University of Oulu, Finland.

dessiccazione sulle propriet a siche del semilavorato e sulle qualit a delle paste alimentari. Italian language). Tecnica Molitoria 35, 416 418. Pavan, G. (1979). The high temperature use in the alimentary pasta drying process (Limpiego dellalta temperatura nel processo di essiccazione delle paste alimentari, Italian language). Tecnica Molitoria 30, 362370.