Powder Technology 270 (2015) 368377

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Powder Technology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/powtec

Simulation and validation of a model for a batch wall heated uidized

bed dryer
G. Srinivas, Sunil K. Thamida, Y. Pydi Setty
Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Warangal, India 506004

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Drying of wet particulate solids is carried out in a novel way in a wall heated uidized bed dryer. The experimen-
Received 4 December 2013 tal data shows that drying occurs effectively. The temperature variation with respect to time reveals that there is
Received in revised form 9 October 2014 evaporative cooling occurring in the solids. Initially, there is lowering of temperature, then an increase is noticed
Accepted 9 October 2014
and nally it reaches steady state. This phenomenon of wall heated drying is modelled rst by percolation model
Available online 29 October 2014
by taking radial average of temperature of air, temperature of solids and moisture content of solids but account-
Keywords:
ing for axial variation along the height of the cylindrical uidized bed. The drying rate is considered to depend on
Fluidized bed drying the local temperature of the solids in the uidized bed. This procedure produced three coupled partial differential
Wall heating equations: one for temperature of air, second for temperature of solids and third for moisture content of solids.
Mathematical model The axial convective heat transport equation and drying rate equation are solved using an explicit Euler numer-
Convective heat transfer ical method. Well-mixed (CSTR) model and CSTRs-in-series model are also presented to account for
Moisture content recirculations in the bubbling regime of uidization. The simulation results of CSTRs-in-series model show a
Evaporative cooling good agreement with experimental data for temperature and moisture variation. Especially, the evaporative
cooling phenomenon is captured successfully through simulation.
2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Fluidized bed dryers (FBD) are widely used in chemical, pharmaceu-
tical, food and mineral process industries for drying of moist solids. A
classication is done to delineate the uidization regimes and ow pat-
terns in uidized beds [1]. Fluidized bed dryers have many advantages
compared to other dryers such as tray dryers and rotary vacuum dryer
[2]. The uidized bed dryers are mainly adopted to enhance the drying
rates in drying operation. The advantages with the uidized bed dryers
are extremely high surface area of contact between gas and solid per
unit bed volume, high relative velocities between the gas and the
dispersed solid phase, high levels of intermixing of the solids phase, fre-
quent particle particle and particle wall collisions resulting in higher
heat and mass transfer rates [3].
Temple and Boxtel [4] have developed a model to predict the drying
behavior in a three stage uidized bed dryer for black tea using hot air as
a heating medium by assuming continuous stirred tank reactor model
to predict the temperature and moisture variation in solids.
Wang and Chen [5] have studied pressure variation along the height
with respect to time by numerical modeling. Burgschweiger and Tsotsas
[6] have modeled dynamic and steady state continuous uidized bed
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 870 2462611; fax: +91 870 2459547.
E-mail addresses: g.srinivas@nitw.ac.in (G. Srinivas), sunil76@nitw.ac.in (S.K. Thamida),
psetty@nitw.ac.in (Y. Pydi Setty).
drying using hot gas as heating medium by applying the population bal-
ance to predict the drying kinetics. The uidized bed dryer was modeled
as a series of continuous stirred tank reactors. Syahrul et al. [7,8] have
developed a model to study energy and exergy efciencies in a uidized
bed dryer for wheat and corn particles using hot air as a heating medi-
um assuming spatial variation of the physical and thermo physical
quantities as negligible. Groenewold and Tsotsas [9], have studied effect
of immersion of heating element in a uidized bed dryer. Cooling effect
has been observed and drying kinetics variation has been studied due to
immersion of heated object. Debaste et al. [10] have studied external
and internal mass transfer resistances in yeast drying and a model has
been developed assuming uidized bed dryer as a batch or lumped pa-
rameter model to predict the drying behavior. Geldart and Lewis [11]
have studied heat transfer from immersed bodies at high temperatures
in sand uidized bed. Silva et al. [12] have studied drying behavior for
soya meal in a uidized bed dryer experimentally and simulation by
using EulerianEulerian two uid model with respect to time variation
only.
It can be inferred from above literature that it is a very difcult task
to simulate the drying behavior in uidized bed dryer with respect to
temporal and spatial variation of moisture content of solids, solid tem-
perature and air temperature. In the present study, the inuence of
wall heat source on uidized bed drying is modeled and simulated by
incorporating the variation of temperature of air, solids and moisture
content in solids with respect to time and position along the height of
the uidized bed.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2014.10.011
0032-5910/ 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 G. Srinivas et al. / Powder Technology 270 (2015) 368377
Compared to the above discussed models for hot air FBDs and inter-
nally heated FBDs, the present model is novel. The novelty is that, a dis-
tributed parameter model is developed for spatial and temporal
variation for moisture content of solids, temperature of air and temper-
ature of solids in a wall heated FBD. Since there is availability of high
speed computation now-a-days, such coupled ordinary differential
equations (ODEs) and partial differential equations (PDEs) could be
solved by simple nite difference method in space in combination
with Eulerian approach for time unlike the approximations proposed
in earlier models [46,911]. The present detailed modelling approach
is described in Section 3.
The advantage of this wall heated uidized bed dryer (FBD) is that
the solids temperature does not increase to a high temperature like in
hot air uidized bed dryer since the inlet air is at room temperature.
In the case wall heated FBD, the heat supplied to the wall could be con-
trolled at a desired level. The dried product in hot air uidized bed dryer
is at drying medium temperature and it requires to be cooled to room
temperature. Also to heat the air medium high energy consumption is
required due to low thermal conductivity of air. Heat is also lost in the
transportation of hot air. These drawbacks of hot air FBD may be over-
come using wall heated FBD. The evaporative cooling effect is found to
keep the solids at a temperature closer to the room temperature or
inlet air temperature and at the same time causing a good drying effect.
Hence, this type of wall heated FBD is useful for drying of particulate
solids which are heat sensitive like the materials produced in pharma-
ceutical, food and other related industries.
2. Experimental setup and procedure
A schematic diagram of experimental setup is shown in the Fig. 1.
Similar experimental setup was used to study wall heated uidized
bed drying of binary solid mixture by Srinivas and Pydi Setty [13]. The
atmospheric air from the compressor was sent into the uidized bed
dryer through a rotameter for ow rate measurement. The ow range
available on the rotameter is 0100 kg/h. Heat was supplied to uidized
bed through the electrically heated wall with the inlet air being sup-
plied at room temperature. Solids are generally classied as Geldart C,
A, B and D particles based on their size and density [1]. In the present
study sand particles of average size 1.2 mm with true density
2500 kg/m3 have been used for drying studies. The solids used were
sand particles of size approximately 1.2 mm which falls under Geldart
D type particles. The solids with low initial moisture content are stud-
ied. The air was passed through the calming section provided with a
pipe of length 80 cm to create fully developed ow before it reaches
the distributor plate. Distributor plate used is a perforated plate placed
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of experimental setup.
369
above the calming section with a suitable mesh xed to it such that
sand particles do not fall below. The uidized bed column height is
40 cm and inner diameter is 8.3 cm. It is surrounded with an electric
heater made up of nichrome wire. The height of heating zone is
40 cm. Insulation in the form of glass wool was also provided sur-
rounding the electric heater to minimize heat loss. The power supply
is routed through a rheostat. By controlling the rheostat, the heat
supply to the column is varied.
Initially, the heater was switched on to allow it to reach a steady
state without any solids in the dryer. Then a measured quantity of wet
sand with initial moisture content of 0.1 kg water/kg dry sand was
added. Then air was passed through it at a measured ow rate to create
uidization [14]. The bed height initially is 0.05 m and expands to a u-
idized height of 0.4 m. The minimum uidization velocity of these sand
particles is 0.78 m/s [14]. The wet solids require higher velocity than the
dry solids to obtain a sufciently high uidization condition. Hence, an
air velocity of 2.13 m/s was provided. It results in a bubbling uidization
regime as can be inferred from Geldart ow regime chart [1]. Tempera-
ture sensors are provided at various heights along the uidized bed. The
temperatures were recorded as a function of time. In correspondence
with time, the samples of sand each of 2 grams were collected from var-
ious heights of the column. The collected samples were analyzed to pro-
vide data of moisture content in the solids at regular intervals of time.
Four temperature sensors (PT 100) with data logging system have
been used to measure and record the temperature at different locations
at regular interval in the uidized bed dryer. The tips of the four sensors
are located centrally or along the axis of the FBD column. In the model, it
is assumed that the radial variation of temperature in the uidized gran-
ular bed is negligible due to large L/D or aspect ratio of the column and
also due to smaller diameter of the column.
Fig. 2 presents the experimental results of bed temperature versus
time at different heights for air supercial velocity of 2.13 m/s. It has
been observed from the Fig. 2 that the bed temperature is higher as
we move up in the uidized bed.
Moisture variation in the solids at the top of the uidized bed is
measured with respect to time and has been presented in the Fig. 3. In
the present study, the drying rate is in the falling rate period since the
experiments were performed with solids of low initial moisture con-
tent. Experiments were repeated for three times and the results were
found to be nearly same and the error is very small. Also error bars are
indicated in Fig. 3. Fig. 3 for moisture content variation with respect to
time is plotted along with the error bars. The same error bars could
not be incorporated for temperature vs time of Fig. 2 because the initial
temperature of solids varies with room temperature.
From Fig. 2, it is interesting to note that the temperature of the
uidized bed at two different locations decreases initially and as time
proceeds it increases. The reason for such variation could be that
29
28.5 z = 0.2 m
28 z = 0.1 m
Temperature, C
27.5
27
26.5
26
25.5
25
24.5
24
0 100 200 300 400
Time, s
Fig. 2. Experimental data of temperature variation with respect to time at various locations
along the uidized bed.
370 G. Srinivas et al. / Powder Technology 270 (2015) 368377

Fig. 3. Moisture content variation with time (at z = 0.2 m).

evaporative cooling may be taking place initially and later the less mois-
ture laden solids get heated up to higher temperature.
From Fig. 3, the dynamics of moisture content variation at certain
location in the uidized bed is presented. The solid sample is collected
from a location which is 40 cm from the bottom of the FBD.
Fig. 4. (a). Moisture and heat transfer for a single particle (b). Control volume.
3. Modeling and simulation

3.1. Percolation model control volume such as Fig. 4(b) is taken, the convective heat transfer
equation for air phase could be formulated in axi-symmetric cylindrical
Fluidized bed drying is a multiphase phenomenon. The system con- coordinate system as given below [15,16].
sists of solid particles, air, water in solids and water vapor in air. Model- " !#


ing such a system is a difcult task as found in literature for hot gas T a T a 1 T a 2 T a
drying method. During uidization, air is supplied from the bottom of a C pa a C pa V a Ka r Q airsolid 1
t z r r r z2
the column of solid particles. When the inlet air velocity is beyond min-
imum uidization velocity, the solid particles get uidized. The height of
Here Qair solid is the volumetric heat loss from air to solids. This
the solids bed increases to certain level such that the applied pressure
could be expressed as
drop balances the weight of the particles. Though the bed height
might be different for different ow rates, the height is assumed not
Q airsolid h as T a T s 2
to change with time for given supercial gas velocities of air. Only the
void fraction, changes as the air's supercial velocity Va changes. Gen-
Where h is the heat transfer coefcient for a ow past a solid particle,
erally increases with increase in Va. A schematic of the uidized bed is
as is surface area of particles in unit volume. The effect of bed void frac-
shown in Fig. 4 [14]. It is considered that in the solid phase, particles do
tion appears through the value of as. The void fraction in turn depends
not contact each other as an ideal situation. The z-axis along the height
on the air supercial velocity and solid particle properties. In Eq. (1),
of the uidized bed is divided into several nodes. Moreover, the nite
the conduction term in z-direction would be small compared to convec-
volume element at each node is assumed to have time averaged proper-
tive heat transport. Hence, it could be simplied as
ties though uctuations exist within it. The model has both temporal
and spatial variation of temperature and moisture content at each 

T a T 1 T
node. Since it is a distributed parameter model, it provides variation a C pa a C pa V a a K a r a h as T a T s 3
t z r r r
with respect to space and time unlike the averages in lumped
parameter model.
As shown in Fig. 4(a) there are two phenomena occurring apart from Now, an assumption of radial averaging of the governing Eq. (3) for
R
uidization. First is heat transfer from air to solid particles and second is temperature of air is done by applying R1 2 0 (Eq. (3)) 2r dr.
mass transfer of moisture from solids to air. There is a third phenome- Let the radial averaged temperature in air phase be dened as
non of cooling in solids due to evaporation of water.
In Fig. 4(a), it is only a schematic representation of mean position of ZR
particles. In the model, it is assumed that the heat is rst transferred 1
T a 2rdr hT a i 4
from wall to air and then from air to particles. And this heat transfer R2
0
coefcient is assumed to be of high value which incorporates both
particle-particle heat transfer as well as particle-air heat transfer
The following simplication is obtained for the radial heat conduc-
The main source of heat is from the wall of the uidized bed and the
tion term of Eq. (3) as
assumption has been made that the temperature distribution along the
wall is uniform. In the present model, it is assumed that air gets heated
ZR
  
by wall heating. The heated air in turn heats the solids. The evaporation 1 1 T 2  T R 2q
of water from solids takes place at drying rate that depends on the in- K r a 2rdr 2 rK a  W 5
R2 r r r R r 0 R
stantaneous temperature and moisture content of the solids. When a 0
 G. Srinivas et al. / Powder Technology 270 (2015) 368377
Where, qW is the wall heating per unit surface area (Watts/m2).
Upon radial averaging, Eq. (3) gives
hT a i hT a i 2qW
a C pa a C pa V a h as hT a ihT s i 6 C 2 hT a ihT s iC 3 hX i
t z R t
For the solids, the radial averaged heat balance equation is written as
dhT s i
1 s C ps Q airsolid Q evap 7
dt
R t
Where, hT s i R1 2 T s 2rdr is the radial averaged solids tempera-
0
ture. The inside portion of a solid particle is assumed to be at same tem-
perature Ts but this Ts would vary along the height of bed since the
heat is supplied by air owing past each solid particle. It is assumed
that there are no temporal uctuations in the temperature of solids
and air. It is also assumed that each particle in the dryer is surrounded
by gas stream as shown in Fig. 4 and is not in direct contact with wall
and hence wall-particle heat transfer is neglected. In Eq. (7), Qevap is
the cooling in the solids due to evaporation of water. The latent heat
of evaporation is drawn from the solids themselves. The volumetric
cooling could be expressed in terms of rate of evaporation as
Q evap Nas W
Where N is the drying rate in solids, as is the specic surface area of
solid particles, W is latent heat of vaporization of water.
By substitution of Eqs. (2) & (8) in Eq. (7), we obtain
dhT s i
1 s C ps has hT a ihT s iNas W 9
dt
Now, the local evaporation rate N has to be related to the local tem-
perature of solids bTsN as well as with solids moisture content X. Here, X
has the units kg water/kg dry solid. The general drying rate characteris-
tics of particulate solids are represented in Fig. 4. Since the drying in
present uidized bed drying is done in the falling rate regime, it is as-
sumed that the drying rate, N could be assumed as linear function of
moisture content as.
 
N k1 hX iX
Where, X* is the equilibrium moisture content or the least possible
moisture content in the solids. As an approximation, X* could be as-
sumed as X* = 0. k1 is the slope of the drying rate curve in falling rate
regime, which is tted as a linear function with respect to temperature
as shown in Fig. 3. The expression for k1 would be
k1 C 0 hT s ihT 0 i
Where C0 is a parametric constant and bT0N is a reference tempera-
ture below which the drying would be very minimal or zero. The simpli-
ed governing equation for variation of moisture content X of solids is
given below.
X method is used. The initial condition used is Ta = Tin for 0 b z b H since
1 s Nas 12
t initial wet sand is at the same temperature as surrounding air and mois-
By substituting Eqs. (10) and (11) in Eq. (12), it gives
hX i
C 1 hT s ihT 0 ihX i
t Solving Eqs. (13)(15) by nite difference method equation requires
as C 0
Where C 1 1
s
371
The governing equation of temperature of solids is simplied by
substituting Eqs. (10) and (11) in Eq. (9)
hT s i
14
as C 0 W C 1 W
Where C 2 1has C ps and C 3 1 s C ps or C ps
s
The governing equation for temperature of air is simplied by
substituting Eqs. (10) and (11) in Eq. (6),
hT a i
V a hT a i C 4 C 5 hT a ihT s i 15
z
Where C 4 R2qCWpa and C 5 haCspa ;
a a
For predicting the kinetics of drying in wall heated uidized bed,
Eqs. (13), (14) and (15) have to be solved simultaneously for moisture
content X(z, t), temperature of solids Ts(z, t) and temperature of
air, Ta(z, t). The boundary condition for air temperature is that, at
2
z = 0, Ta = Tin, at z = H, zhT2a i 0 , the initial conditions are
X(z, 0) = X0, Ts(z, 0) = Tin, Ta(z, 0) = Tin.
The governing equations for moisture content of solids, temperature
of solids and temperature of air are as shown in Eqs. (13)(15). These
Eqs. (13)(15) consist of totally six parameters namely C1, C2, C3, C4, C5,
and Va. The values of these parameters are calculated as C1 = 1.7E-4
(1/C s), C2 = 0.0423 (1/s), C3 = 0.31 (1/s), C4 = 326.4 (C/s), C5 =
8
74.4 (1/s) and Va = 2.13 (m/s) based on the average values of primary
physical properties and experimental conditions such as voltage, V =
90 (volts), current, I = 9.5 (amp), column diameter, D = 0.083(m), u-
idized bed height, L = 0.4 (m). Voidage and solid-air interfacial area at
uidization condition have been calculated from correlation provided
by Kunii & Levenspiel [14] and for the present work the values are
found to be = 0.5 and as = 880 (m2/m3). The other properties are
taken at average temperature [14,17] and values are obtained as Cpa =
1005 (J/kgC), Cps = 1380 (J/kg C), a = 1.205 (kg/m3), s = 2500
(kg/m3), dp = 0.0012 (m), C0 = 2.5E-04 (kg/m2sC), T0 = 16.7 (C),
w = 2400 (KJ/kg). The calculated values of average properties
are qw = 8.2 KW/m2. The wall heat ux is calculated as qw = VI/DL
(W/m2). Heat transfer coefcient between air and solids has been found
from equation given by Kunii & Levenspiel [14] as h = 102 W/m2C.
Explicit and implicit methods are approaches used in numerical
analysis for obtaining numerical solutions of time and space dependent
ordinary and partial differential equations as is required in computer
10 simulations of physical processes. Explicit methods calculate the state
of a system at a later time from the state of the system at the current
time, while implicit methods nd a solution by solving an equation in-
volving both the current state of the system and the later one. It is
clear that implicit methods require an extra computation (solving the
above equation), and they can be much harder to implement. In the
present numerical simulation, explicit method is used.
The coupled differential Eqs. (13)(15) are solved using explicit Euler
11 method. These simultaneous equations could be solved together to ob-
tain Ta (z,t), Ts (z,t) and X (z,t), that is temperatures and moisture
content along vertical axis of the uidized bed with respect to time.
Since they are coupled differential equations, we have used discretization
by nite difference method to update the temperatures and moisture
content for every small time step and spatial step. An explicit Eulerian
method is used. For axial gradient of temperature of air, central difference
ture content of solids is X = X0 for 0 b z b H. Here, H is the height of u-
idized bed and Xo is the initial moisture content of sand. The boundary
conditions assumed for temperature of air are Ta = Tin at z = 0 and
at z = H, d2 Ta/dz2 = 0.
13
selection of appropriate step t and space element size z. If t is too
high, it results in instability and shooting up of the solution. If z is
372 G. Srinivas et al. / Powder Technology 270 (2015) 368377

Fig. 7. Moisture content vs time at different heights.

Fig. 5. Air temperature vs time at various heights in a uidized bed.

the solids decreases to equilibrium levels and hence the air temperature
too high then that would be lack of information on axial gradient of tem-
attains a linear variation similar to a heat exchanger with constant wall
perature. Hence there is a combination of t and z selection which
heat ux. This aspect is observed from temperature prole at t = 2400 s.
would help in obtaining a smooth solution to the differential equations.
This prole does not change even if the simulation is carried out further.
After several trials, it is chosen that z = 0.01 m and t = 0.001 s.
Since adoptive time step is used in simulating the kinetic equations of
Eq. (6) contains the spatial derivative Ta/z which should be
Eqs. (13)(15). No instability is observed and steady state is reached.
discretized as (Ta(z + z) Taz)/z and that z should be carefully se-
In Fig. 9, the temperature prole of solids along the bed height is
lected to avoid instability in the time dependent numerical simulation
plotted at different times of simulation. Initially at t = 0, entire solids
of temperature proles. A trial and error approach has given us that
bed is at room temperature. It is interesting to note that the temperature
z = 0.01 m and t = 0.001 s. A few other combinations may also pro-
of entire solids bed falls below of the initial temperature as can be ob-
vide a stable solution but for much smaller z & t, it would consume
served from the temperature prole at t = 100 s. This effect is mainly
high CPU time.
due to evaporative cooling. As the drying proceeds the moisture content
The simulation of Eqs. (13)(15) is carried out using an own algo-
of solids decreases and the wall heat is utilized in increasing the sensible
rithm in MATLAB. From the simulation, the temporal variation of air
heat of solids. Further simulation for large number of time steps such as
temperature, solids temperature and moisture content of solids at vari-
t = 2400 s leads to a steady state linear temperature prole which coin-
ous heights of the uidized bed is plotted in Figs. 57.
cides with that of air which is the heating medium. Hence equilibrium is
In Fig. 5 the temperature of air decreases rst, then increases and at- reached nally which is thermodynamically justied.
tains steady state for all locations along the bed. The decrease in temper-
In Fig. 10, the moisture content prole of solids in the FBD is initially
ature in the beginning stage is due to evaporative cooling. Similar effect
at a constant value of 0.1 kg water/kg dry solid. As the drying proceeds
is seen for solids as shown in Fig. 6. The moisture content as shown in the moisture content decreases by a greater extent at top of the bed
Fig. 7 decreases to higher extent at top portion of the bed rst contrary
compared to bottom of the bed. This is an interesting result as compared
to the hot air drying. to hot air drying where solids at bottom of the bed are dried early. This
Similarly, the air temperature, solids temperature and moisture con-
aspect could be utilized in design of co-current wall heated FBD. And for
tent along the bed height at various times are plotted in Figs. 8, 9 and 10. consistency of simulation results it can be observed that the moisture
In Fig. 8 at t = 0, that is at initial condition the entire column of air is at
content falls to equilibrium value which is X* = 0 at t = 2400 s. No fur-
room temperature. Since there is wall heating and upward movement ther instability is observed from further simulation.
of air, the air temperature increases as we move upward in the column
From Fig. 2 of experimental data and Fig. 7. of simulation, one can
but due to evaporative cooling of solids and heat transfer from air to note that the temperature rst decreases and then increases to reach a
solids, there is only a marginal increase in temperature as observed tem-
steady state. The initial decrease of temperature is due to evaporative
perature prole at t = 100 s. As drying proceeds the moisture content in cooling depending on parameter C3 being associated with negative

Fig. 6. Solid temperature vs time at various heights in a uidized bed. Fig. 8. Air temperature at different times along the uidized bed height.
 G. Srinivas et al. / Powder Technology 270 (2015) 368377 373

Rate of change in enthalpy of solids = Heat transferred from air to

solids Enthalpy lost due to evaporation.
dX/dt is negative therefore a positive sign is used in Eq. (16).

dT s 2 dX
ms C ps has Rc H FB T a T s ms 16
dt dt W

Rearranging the above equation gives,


dT s has R2c H FB dX

T a T s W 17
dt ms C ps C ps dt

For air.
Rate of change in enthalpy of air = Enthalpy at inow Enthalpy at
outow + Heat supplied by wall.

Fig. 9. Solid temperature at different times along the uidized bed height. dT a

2 
RC H FB a C pa ma C pa T a T a;in qw 2 RC H FB 18
dt
sign in Eq. (14). Later, due to wall heating the air gets heated and in turn
it heats the sand depending on parameter C5 being positive. But the Rearranging the above equation gives,
temperature in bed reaches a steady state because the heat gained by 

wall heating is balanced by convective cooling provided by inlet air dT a m a 2qW

T a T a;in 19
being at room temperature. Thus, the simulation of the drying phenom- dt R2c H FB a Rc a C pa
ena in a wall heated uidized bed dryer is successfully validated. The
algorithm implemented for simulation is shown schematically as For moisture content of solids.
block diagram in Fig. 11. Rate of moisture loss from solids = surface area of solids x drying
rate.
3.2. Well-mixed model

dX 2
ms as A0 Rc H FB T s T 0 X 20
Well-mixed model means that the air temperature, solid tempera- dt
ture and moisture content of the solids are uniform throughout the
Rearranging the above equation gives,
FBD. By this model one can predict the variation of overall or average
air temperature, solids temperature and moisture content with time. It

dX as A0 R2C H FB
is also known as Well-mixed Lumped parameter model (CSTR model) T s T 0 X 21
[18,19]. A Model schematic diagram is shown in Fig. 12. dt ms
The governing equations for well-mixed model in a wall heated FBD
have been presented below for rate of change of temperature of sand, Let the parameters in each of the above equations be represented as
temperature of air and moisture content of sand as in Eqs. (16) to (21).
has R2c H FB


Let ms = mass of solids in FBD (kg), Cps = Specic heat of solids ma

a1
; a2 W ; a3 ;
(J/kg C), h = heat transfer coefcient (W/m2C), as = specic surface ms C ps C ps R2C H FB a
area of solids (m2/m3), Rc = radius of column (m), HFB = Height of uid-

ized bed (m), w = Latent heat of evaporation ((J/kg).), Ts = Tempera-
ture of solids (C), X = Moisture content of solids (kg water/kg dry
sand), t = time (s), Ta = Temperature of air (C), a = Density of air
(kg/m3), s = Density of solids (kg/m3), qw = Wall heat ux (W/m2),
= Voidage (de Souza-Santos (1999)), ma : = mass ow rate of air
(kg/s), A0 = Drying rate constant (kg/m2s).
For sand particles,
Fig. 10. Moisture content along the bed height at different times.
2
2qW as A0 RC H FB
a4 ; a5
RC a C pa ms
The values of these parameters are calculated as a1 = 0.017 (1/s),
a2 = 1739.1 (C), a3 = 12.6 (1/s), a4 = 393.2 (C/s), a5 = 5.2 104
(1/s).
These coupled differential Eqs. (17), (19) and (21) have been solved
simultaneously by explicit nite difference method in time using
MATLAB. The resultant kinetics for the moisture content of solids, tem-
perature of solids and temperature of air are plotted as a function of
time as shown in Figs. 13, 14 and 15. The temperature of solids does pre-
dict evaporative cooling initially and nal attainment of steady state.
The air temperature suddenly jumps to a higher value than that of
inlet. This could be due to high wall heat ux and that the rst order
time constant term in Eq. (19) is very small. The drying kinetics shows
constant rate of decrease initially and approached X = 0 (fully dry con-
dition) slowly and asymptotically.
Fig. 13 presents the solids temperature variation in the wall heated
FBD with time using well-mixed model. At the initial stage of drying
due to latent heat of evaporation the solids were cooled and tempera-
ture decreases in the bed and due to wall heating the solids get dried
due to heat transfer from heated air to the wet solids. The heat is also
transferred due to particle convection and the heat transfer coefcient
in the present study used is due to particle and gas convective heat
transfer coefcients. The solids have been assumed to be well-mixed
374 G. Srinivas et al. / Powder Technology 270 (2015) 368377

Fig. 11. Algorithm as a block diagram for the simulation.

in the wall heated FBD and the model governing equations for the tem-
perature of solids, temperature of air and moisture content of solids
were presented in Eqs. (16) to (21). Fig. 14 presents the air temperature
variation with time in the FBD and it can be seen that the air tempera-
ture has been rising from room temperature to approximately 56 C
which is due to wall heating. Fig. 15 presents the variation of moisture
content of solids in the bed with time. It can be noticed from Figs. 13
and 15 that the solids temperature is increasing until the moisture con-
tent of solids is completely removed and then the solids reach the
steady state.
By this well-mixed model the drying kinetics in a wall heated FBD
are predicted in a Lumped parameter mode. But experimentally it was
observed that there is a variation of temperature of solids, temperature
of air and moisture content of solids along the height of the bed also.
Hence a distributed parameter model could be developed. It can be
done in two ways: Continuous stirred tank reactors (CSTRs) in series
or Percolation model. The percolation model is already presented in
Section 3.1. The following Section 3.3 would present the CSTRs in series
model and its results.
3.3. CSTRs-in-series model
To predict the appropriate drying kinetics, the above depicted model
has been assumed (Fig. 16). The governing equations have been devel-
oped for each stage. The equations are similar to that of well-mixed
model. In this model the governing equations for each stage in nite dif-
ference form for numerical simulation are presented in Appendix for all
the four stages. The equations are solved simultaneously using explicit
nite difference method using code developed in MATLAB. The results
are presented in the Figs. 17 to 19.
Figs. 17 to 19 presents the results of solids temperature, moisture
content of solids and air temperature variation with time at different lo-
cations in the wall heated FBD. It can be observed from the gures that
the solids and air temperature have been found to be increasing along
 G. Srinivas et al. / Powder Technology 270 (2015) 368377
Fig. 12. Schematic of air and solids ow pattern assuming well-mixed model in FBD.
the height. This could be due to accumulation of heat convection from
wall to air and air to solids. From Figs. 17 to 19 it can be seen that the
solid temperature reaches steady after the complete removal of the
moisture from solids. It can also be observed that the solids temperature
is reaching the same air temperature at the top of wall heated FBD at
steady state. This kind of phenomena can be observed in all kinds of
FBDs either hot air or wall heated.
Thus well-mixed model is able to predict the solids, air temperature
and moisture content of solids for overall wall heated FBD and CSTRs in
series model is able to predict the solids, air temperature and moisture
content of solids variation at different locations of the wall heated
FBD. The two different models namely percolation model and CSTRs in
series model results have been compared in Fig. 20.
Fig. 20 presents the experimental steady state temperatures at dif-
ferent bed heights for above specied conditions. It can be observed
again from Fig. 20 that the steady state temperature is higher at upper
locations of the uidized bed. It has been also observed that the drying
rate is higher at the top of dense bed and lower at the bottom of bed.
This aspect is contrary to the hot air drying. This is because fresh air is
supplied at inlet at the bottom of the uidized bed and it gets heated
up as it moves upwards along the heated wall surface. In Fig. 20, the
model prediction of steady state temperatures as obtained at different
bed heights are compared with the experiential results. The average of
the air temperature and solid temperature is taken from the model for
Fig. 13. Solids temperature variation with time.
375
Fig. 14. Air temperature variation with time.
comparison with experimental results since experimental measure-
ment gives only the bed temperature which could be the average of
air and solids. It shows a good prediction
4. Conclusions
The wall heated uidized bed dryer has been modelled using radial
averaged heat convection equation in percolation model. Further CSTR
and CSTRs-in-series models are also developed. The temperature distri-
bution in the uidized bed at various bed heights shows good agree-
ment with model results. The moisture distribution in uidized bed
shows that at the top of the bed the drying rate was slightly high as
compared with bottom of the uidized bed. The phenomenon of evap-
orative cooling is observed and found to be substantial. This phenomena
is similar to the hot air injected uidized bed dryer [12]. Wall heated
FBD could be more energy efcient than hot air FBD. Energy efciency
could be dened as mass (kg) of water evaporated per Joule of energy
supplied. One can evaluate the product of rate of energy supplied and
the operation time to know the overall energy supplied per batch.
And the water evaporated would be water content evaporated or ms
(Xinitial Xnal) Where ms is the mass of dry sand and Xinitial and Xnal
are the initial and nal moisture contents of solids.
Fig. 15. Moisture content variation with time.
376 G. Srinivas et al. / Powder Technology 270 (2015) 368377

Fig. 18. Variation of moisture content of solids with time.

h Heat transfer coefcient (W/m2. C)

H Height (m)
I Current (amp)
k1 Slope of drying rate curve (kg/m2)
K Thermal conductivity (W/m. C)
N Drying rate (kg/m2. s)
Q Heat transferred per unit volume (W/m3)
Fig. 16. CSTRs in series model in wall heated FBD.
qw Heat transfer from wall (W/m2)
R Radius (m)
Nomenclature t time (s)
a1 Constant, (1/s) T Temperature (C)
a2 Constant, (C) T0 Temperature below which drying rate is negligible (C)
a3 Constant, (1/s) T Radial averaged temperature (C)
a4 Constant, (C/s) V Voltage (volts)
a5 Constant, (1/s) V Supercial velocity (m/s)
as Specic surface area (m2/m3) X Moisture content (kg water/kg dry solid)
C0 Constant (kg/m2. C) X Equilibrium moisture content (kg water/kg dry solid)
C1 Constant (1/C. s) X Radial averaged moisture content (kg water/kg dry solid)
C2 Constant (1/s) z Height (m)
C3 Constant (1/s)
C4 Constant (C/s)
C5 Constant (1/s) Greek letters
Cp Specic heat capacity (kJ/kg. C) Density of air (kg/m3)
Dp Diameter of the particle (m) Void fraction

Fig. 17. Solids temperature variation with time. Fig. 19. Air temperature variation with time at different heights of uidized bed.
 G. Srinivas et al. / Powder Technology 270 (2015) 368377 377

60 Appendix A. Supplementary data

50
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at http://dx.
Bed Temperature (C)

40 doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2014.10.011.

30 Experimental
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