Mathematical Modeling and Simulation of Rapeseed Drying on Concurrent-Flow Dryer

Mathematical modeling for rapeseed drying on concurrent-flow dryer was built based on energy and mass transfer balances. The fourth-order Runge – Kutta method was used for solving four ordinary differential equations. A computer simulation program for circulating concurrent-flow rapeseed dryer was developed using these models. A pilot-scale concurrent-flow dryer was used to verify the fitness of simulation program. Two drying experiments were conducted. The output parameters of the simulation program were compared and analyzed with experiment data. The RMSE of simulated moisture contents ranged from 0.334 to 0.506%w.b. with the coefficient of determinations ranged from 0.994 to 0.997. The RMSE of simulated rapeseed temperatures during drying process ranged from 1.15 to 1.77°C with the R 2 ranging from 0.904 to 0.925. The experimental drying rates were 2.38 and 2.80% w. b./h. In comparison with simulated values, the difference between simulated value and measured value of drying rate were 5.04 and 5.08%; drying time were 7.14 and 0.47%; and germination ratio were 1.87 and 0.47%. The simulated fuel energy consumption for drying were 4.62 and 8.57% lower than the experimental values. The analytic results showed that the simulation results have good fitness with experimental data.