A mathematical model for simulating heat and moisture transfer within porous cotton fabric drying inside the domestic air-vented drum dryer

A mathematical model was developed to describe the processes of coupled heat and mass and momentum transfer occurring in convective drying of 100% porous cotton fabric. In this model, the variation in both air and fabric properties were expressed as a function of temperature and moisture content. The resulting systems of transient non-linear partial differential equations in the space-time domain together with the set of initial values and boundary conditions were numerically solved by utilizing the finite difference method. A series of laboratory drying experiments were performed using a computer-controlled dehydration system, which was developed to obtain data of drying kinetics under varying operating conditions for the validation of the predicted results from the proposed model. The experimental results has shown a very good agreement with the predictions of the model, which indicates that the proposed numerical model can be used with confidence as a tool in optimizing the design and operation of the fabric drying system. A parametric study was performed using the modeling tool has demonstrated the impact of key operational parameters on the drying kinetics, which has significant meaning on improving fabric's appearance smoothness and decreasing the damage. It is expected that the model can be applied for other fiber products and processes involving similar phenomena.