Theoretical and Experimental Study of Heating/Drying of Paper Sheet With Gas Heated Infrared Emitter

Infrared (IR) radiation is used for heating/drying of moist paper owing to its penetration characteristic inside porous media, and a high absorptivity of water in the infrared wavelength range. A series of experiments has been conducted along with the development of a theoretical model to study IR drying characteristics. Paper samples are instrumented with thermocouples in the thickness direction to obtain transient temperature profiles along with moisture data. The experimental results confirm IR energy penetration into the paper sheet. The numerical model predicts the experimental transient temperature profile for thinner samples fairly well but tends to under predict the temperatures with progressively thicker samples. Theoretical depth of IR penetration, as a function of sample initial moisture content, has been calculated and was found to decrease with increasing moisture content.