Drying 2004 Proceedings of the 14th International Drying Symposium (IDS 2004) So Paulo, Brazil, 22-25 August 2004,

, vol. A, pp. 285-292

ANALYSIS OF MOISTURE DISTRIBUTION IN CONVECTIVE TEXTILE FABRIC DRYING

Luiza. H. C. D. Sousa1 , Alexandre. S. Monteiro2 , Oswaldo. C. Motta Lima1 Nehemias. C. Pereira1 and Elisabete. S. Mendes1 Professor; 2PIBIC Student Chemical Engineering Department State University of Maring Colombo Avenue 5790, Bl. D90, 87020-900, Maring - PR, Brazil Phone: (+55 44)261-4759; FAX: (+55 44)263-3440; E-mail: luizah@deq.uem.br
Key words: Textile Drying; Convective Drying ; Moisture Distribution ABSTRACT Drying is a very important operation in textile industry and varies according to the fabric moisture content, air velocity and its temperature. Otherwise, many times it is also important the knowledge of the moisture distribution inside the material during the drying process. So, this work presents a study of the analysis of the moisture distribution inside a cotton textile sheet as a function of the drying time and the sample relative position due to a hot air convective flow. The influence of the drying air velocity and its temperature, as well as the effect of the initial moisture content of the textile fabric will be studied. The experimental apparatus intends to simulate the work conditions found in conventional convective dryers, and is adapted from the drying module of the DEQ/UEM Chemical Engineering Laboratory. Samples consisted of pure cotton (about 0,7 mm thick) are placed suspended inside the drying chamber and exposed to a convective hot air flow. The results will be used to build a moisture network and its distribution inside the textile sheet can be established as a function of the drying time. The behavior of the moisture distribution profiles obtained will be analyzed and compared to the average moisture content of the textile fabric, so that we can verified if this average value is able to represent the textile moisture content during the drying process.
1

285

INTRODUCTION The moisture content of the material in the course of drying and especially the final moisture content are very important parameters in drying technology. Under drying may result in the formation of mildew, bacterial groth, aglomeration of the particules, clogging of machinery etc., over-drying may cause deterioration of product quality and wastage of energy (Strumillo and Kudra, 1986). Heat and mass transfer in a porous medium is a process with occurs in nature and many engineering applications. The particular application of interest in the present study is the movement of moisture in clothing materials. The structure of wet cotton fabrics consists of the fiber matrix, liquid water, and gaseous phase of water vapor and air. Predicting the heat and mass transfer in such a system is a difficult task, because the fiber swelling may affect the porosity and the available void space for the liquid and gaseous mixture transport inside the solid matrix. The fabrics worn next to the skin have a direct influence on thermal comfort. Then unevaporated sweat may be wicked through a fabric that comes into contact with skin, to altering the mechanical and thermal properties of the fabric; there is energy flows associated with the wicking. Ghali et al (1995) was developed a study for simulating the heat and mass transfer in fabrics during the wicking process. The authors verified that unlike the temperature, the variation of the fractional saturation is continuous along the specimens (cotton and polypropylene fabric). The objective of this research is to examine of the moisture distribution inside a cotton textile fabric samples sheet as a function of the drying time and the sample relative position due to a hot air convective flow. The influence of the drying air velocity and its temperature, as well as the effect of the initial moisture content of the textile fabric will be studied, too. METHODOLOGY For solid processing equipment such as a dryer, pilot-plant trials are essential to determine the drying and handling characteristics of a given solid so that the full-scale dryer can be designed. It is not always possible to carry out the trials on a large pilot-plant dryer. An alternative approach is to conduct tests on laboratory scale were only small quantities of the wet material are required. Knowledge of the drying kinetics, the changes of average material moisture content with time, is necessary for dryer design. A sketch of the raw material for the determination of the drying curve in a conductive/convective and convective drying is show in Figure 1.

Figure 1 Rib Knit fabric sample

Row material is of approximately 220 g/m2 and yarn Ne 8, produced by MR Knit PR -Brazil. That is a flexible and resistant type of industrial textile to make of use principally by sporting shirt. Before to realize the drying tests, in laboratory, the samples are submitted a wash, with hot water and detergent, to remove the superficially paraffin yarn protected. That is used only because the textile machinery applies a bigger tension on the yarn. In experimental drying process raw material had initial moisture about 1.40 (d.b.).

286

The experimental module used for to get of the drying curves its shown in the Figure 2, Sousa (2003), adapted it. The dryer was compound by a metallic duct that manage the air with controlled velocity by damper connected the duct and temperature controlled by electrical resistance, until a closed box compound by perforated iron plates and steel wool, according detail A, Figure 02. The tests are conducted in a paper resistant box (unclosed chamber) adapted on the perforated table. The drying agent (hot air) flowing through the overhanging textile sample also removes the evaporated water.

Figure 2 Experimental apparatus convective drying

For the construction of the moisture distribution curves, the samples were regular intervals weighty, 5 by 5 minutes, then samples were cutting by four pieces during the drying process and its moisture determined starting from its water mass evaporates (stoves method 105C 3C, 24h), see Figures 3 and 4.

Figure 3 Scheme of horizontal moisture distribution

The velocity of the air-drying was adjusted in agreement of laboratory dryer constructed because limitations of. To obtain the better analysis of moisture distribution in textile fabric was development a convective drying in different samples position and cut this time by time in differents pieces. The air temperature is accompanied and adjusted with the aid of a digital thermometer installed inside the paper box near the textile fabric samples that allows a quite precise adjustment. It could be to calculate the punctual area average moisture and to get the average moisture for each horizontal and vertical samples tested. Figure 5 presents this method results. The samples were used on the laboratory experiments were considered with width and length about 150 mm. The air temperature was 50 and 70 0C. Them speed of the close surface hot air was maintained

287

in the range of 1.0 to 1.5 m/s, adjusted with the aid of a portable digital anemometer. The conditions of the drying air were monitored through a portable digital psychrometer. The textile sample was then placed vertically over the perforated table inside de paper box overhanging air-drying, maintain the two sides free exposed. Its weight loss was monitored in the final of each test. It was necessary to use a fixed metallic support to maintain the textile in the paper box, because it flies.

Figure 4: Scheme of vertical moisture distribuition

Figure 5: Scheme of average vertical and horizontal moisture distribuition

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The experimental results obtained for one initial moisture content and two different positions from the knit textile fabric sample, and with two different temperatures and air-drying velocities showed the influence of these parameters used in the drying process. Moisture content average (vertical and horizontal positions) results were predicted against time for knit cotton textile fabric analysed for several drying conditions, as shown in Table 1. The position 1 and 2 in Figures 6 and 7 are more near air-drying flow. The changes that happen in each position show that the position of the most distant sample of the air-drying, is the one that it evaporates more quickly. It can be verifyed that, for a larger air-drying velocity in the horizontal position of the sample (cut at right angles to the flow air direction), a more evident disturbance happened at the end of the drying, probably caused by the drag of moisture from the border nearest the air-drying flow to the most outlying border.

288

Table 1 : Convective drying Knit textile average moisture content

Time (min) 0 5 10 15 20

50 C and 0,5 m/s 1.40 1.15 0.01 0.47 0.01 0.26 0.01 0.04 0.01

Moisture (b.s.) 50 C and 1,5 m/s 70 C and 0,5 m/s 1.40 1.40 0.94 0.01 0.76 0.01 0.24 0.01 0.16 0.02 0.11 0.01 0.04 0.01 0.04 0.01 0.04 0.01

70 C and 1,5 m/s 1.40 0.54 0.01 0.07 0.01 0.04 0.01 0.03 0.01

The moisture distribution within the knit textile fabric samples, as a function of each cut piece, is shown in Figures 6 to 13.

5 (min) 10 (min)
1,4
Fabric regain (g absorbed water/g of fabric)

15 (min) 20 (min)
1,0 0,8 0,6 0,4 0,2 0,0

Fabric regain (g absorbed water/gof fabric)

1,2 1,0 0,8 0,6 0,4 0,2 0,0 1 2 Position (-) 3 4

2 Position (-)

Figure 6 : Moisture horizontal distribution - 50 C , 0,5 m/s

Figure 7 : Moisture horizontal distribution - 50 C , 1.5 m/s

In Figures 8 and 9, it is observed that this happens in a more discreet way for a larger temperature, once the moisture evaporation impedes that it migrates for the other border. It is verified that the increase of the temperature and the air-drying velocity accelerates the drying process even so they don'influence in the final result. t Therefore, it can be said that will happen a considerable economy of energy if the process uses a larger air velocity of drying for a smaller temperature. It can be observed that the drying process accomplished dividing the material in the same parts, happens in way similar to the normal drying process, that its to say, the time passes, and the moisture it is going decreasing. In some cases local and overall moisture regains were study available by position and time. If the moisture content is higher than the higroscopic moisture content, water vapour near the surface is saturated.

289

5 (min) 10 (min)
Fabric regain (g absorbed water/g of fabric)
Fabric regain (g absorbed water/g of fabric)

15 (min) 20 (min)

0,8

0,8

0,6

0,6

0,4

0,4

0,2

0,2

0,0

2 Position (-)

0,0

2 Position (-)

Figure 8 : Moisture horizontal distribution - 70 C , 0.5 m/s

Figure 9: Moisture horizontal distribution - - 70 C , 1.5 m/s

5 (min) 10 (min)
1,4

15 (min) 20 (min)
Fabric regain (g absorbed water/g of fabric)
1,0 0,8 0,6 0,4 0,2 0,0

Fabric regain (g absorbed water/g of fabric)

1,2 1,0 0,8 0,6 0,4 0,2 0,0 1 2 Position (-) 3 4

2 Position (-)

Figure 10 : Moisture vertical distribution - 50 C , 0.5 m/s

Figure 11 : Moisture vertical distribution - 50 C , 1.5 m/s

It may be also verified in Figures 10 and 11 that the difference between final moisture contents was relatively small. So, we can conclude that air-drying velocity did not show any quantitative influence on knit textile fabric final drying period.

290

5 (min) 10 (min)
Fabric regain (g absorbed water/g of fabric)
Fabric regain (g absorbed water/g of fabric)

15 (min) 20 (min)
0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 0 1 2 Position (-) 3 4

0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 0 1 2 Position (-) 3 4

Figure 12 : Moisture vertical distribution - 70 C , 0.5 m/s

Figure 13 : Moisture vertical distribution - 70 C , 1.5 m/s

Observing Figure 12 and 13, it is verified that the behavior of the textile fabric came as if it took place a conductive drying, that is, the knit fabric evaporates firstly in the center. This fact can be happening due to high temperature and its lower air-drying velocity, allowing that the sample is receiving heat firstly in its central area. The results of the moisture content profiles of the knit textile fabric for air temperatures and air velocity tested they were showing compatible; the obtained results don'present great discrepancies t It is noticed analyzing the results obtained with the knit samples a more coherent behavior in the conditions of air temperatures and air velocitys studied than with having knit cotton textile fabric. This comes to reinforce our conclusion that the moisture content variations along the sample in the process of convective drying of the knit happen evenly. CONCLUSION The results show that the proposed drying methodology could improve the industrial drying process as well as optimise energy utilization. The profiles obtained indicate that moisture variations along the samples in convective drying process take place in a uniform way both in position and in time. Future work will be conducted to develop a representative model to predict the experimental results and to study the effect of different samples area, which will facilitate the understanding of drying process and the use of the applied methodology for another textile materials. NOTATION d.b. dry basis Ne thickness of yarn [-] [-]

291

REFERENCES Ghali, K.; Jones, B. and Tracy, J(1995) Modeling heat and mass transfer in fabrics. Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer. Vol 38, n 1 pp 13-21. Sousa, L. H. C. D. (2003) Estudo da Secagem de Materiais Txteis. Doctor Thesis. Maring, BR. Strumillo, C. and Kudra, T. (1986) Drying:Principles, Applications and Design.Gordon and Breach Science Publishers Vol 3, Poland.

292