Fig. 6.8 Snapshots of gas-solid flow of two different bed boundary conditions. ..................

194

Fig. 6.9 Moisture ratio of particles with different boundary conditions at uf/umf of 1.84 and

temperature of 150oC (bed A: air introduced from two corners of the bed and bed B: air

introduced from the bottom part of the bed). ......................................................................... 196

Fig. 6.10 Snapshots of air vapour mass fraction of beds in the drying medium with different

boundary conditions at uf/umf of 1.84 and temperature of 150oC. ......................................... 197

Fig. 6.11 Snapshots of particle moisture at 30s interval with different boundary conditions at

uf/umf of 1.84 and temperature of 150oC. ............................................................................... 198

Fig. 6.12 Particle diameter reduction with different bed boundary conditions at uf/umf of 1.84

and temperature of 150oC. ..................................................................................................... 199

Fig. 6.13 Moisture distribution of particles with different bed boundary conditions at a fixed

relative air velocity uf/umf of 1.84 and temperature of 150oC ................................................ 200

Fig. 6.14 Size distribution of particles (diameter) with different bed boundary conditions at a

fixed relative air velocity uf/umf of 1.84 and temperature of 150oC ....................................... 201

Fig. 6.15 Drying curve with different solid hold-up at uf/umf of 1.84 and temperature of

150oC...................................................................................................................................... 203

Fig. 6.16 Particle diameter reduction with different solid hold-up at uf/umf of 1.84 and

temperature of 150oC. ............................................................................................................ 203

Fig. 6.17 PMF of moisture distribution of grains with different solid hold-up at a fixed

relative air velocity uf/umf of 1.84 and temperature of 150oC. ............................................... 205

Fig. 6.18 PMF of particle size (diameter) distribution with different solid hold-up at a fixed

relative air velocity uf/umf of 1.84 and temperature of 150oC. ............................................... 206

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Fig. 6.19 σ of particle velocity and particle temperature distribution with different solid hold-

up at a fixed relative air velocity uf/umf of 1.84 and temperature of 150oC. .......................... 206

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 LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1 Different drying systems used for different food products (adapted from

(Jamaleddine & Ray, 2010)) .................................................................................................... 51

Table 2.2 Concepts of different analytical approaches of drying, their advantages and

limitations ................................................................................................................................ 55

Table 2.3 Example of some analytical approaches describe shrinkage. ................................. 58

Table 2.4 Applications of CFD and DEM in food drying....................................................... 65

Table 3.1 Equations to calculate forces and torques on particle i. .......................................... 87

Table 3.2 Heat transfer modes and the equations for determining heat exchange rates. ........ 89

Table 3.3 Parameters used for simulation and physical properties of solid phase. ................. 95

Table 4.1 Parameters used for simulation and physical properties of solids. ....................... 122

Table 5.1 Model settings and physical properties of solid. ................................................... 152

Table 6.1 Model settings and physical properties of solid. ................................................... 184

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 ABSTRACT

Drying is a common practice for the post-harvest processing of food grains. Food grains

naturally undergo several physical and structural modifications during drying. The volumetric

change or shrinkage is one of the important and complicated physical changes in drying.

Among various drying technologies, fluidised bed is widely used and highly recommended for

the food grain drying. Drying and shrinkage in a fluidised bed can be controlled by various

operational conditions, grain properties, bed geometries and solid hold-up.

The first part of this project establishes a numerical drying model based on the combined

approach of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and discrete element method (DEM) for

describing the heat and mass transfer in the fluidised bed. Water evaporation is modelled in

resemblance to a chemical reaction, thereby requiring less model parameters. First, the model

is tested by comparing the predicted results with experimental data of corn kernel from the

literature. Then, the effects of inlet air velocity and temperature are examined and found that

the drying rate increases with both the air velocity and temperature. However, the dried product

quality, represented by the uniformity of moisture distribution, increases with increasing air

velocity or decreasing air temperature.

In the second part, a linear shrinkage model for grain diameter reduction is incorporated into

the developed (CFD-DEM) drying model. The model is tested by comparing the predicted

drying and volume reduction curves with the experimental data of wheat from the literature.

The results demonstrate the capability of the current model in predicting drying and shrinkage

characteristics. The effects of inlet air temperature and air velocity on drying and shrinkage are

also studied here. The results reveal that shrinkage rate, resembling to that of drying rate,

increases significantly with increasing air temperature and, however, slightly with increasing

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inlet air velocity. The drying quality, quantified here by the uniformity of grain size distribution

increases with decreasing air temperature or increasing air velocity.

The effects of different grain properties like grain size, density and initial moisture content on

drying and shrinkage are investigated in the third part by the developed CFD-DEM drying and

shrinkage model. The contribution of different heat transfer modes on fluidised bed drying is

evaluated and found that convective heat transfer is dominant but conductive heat transfer

become important at low air velocity. The effect of grain size on drying rate are quantified here

for the first time and revealed that the drying rate decreases exponentially with increasing the

grain size. A slight slower drying and shrinkage rate is observed with increasing the initial

moisture content and grain density. Then, the effects of grain properties on the drying quality

are evaluated by the grain scale results and found that the uniformity of moisture and size

distribution of grains increases with increasing the grain size or decreasing the grain density

and initial moisture content.

The effects of bed geometries such as bed height, boundary conditions, and solid hold-up on

drying and shrinkage are evaluated in the fourth part of this thesis. Two different boundary

conditions of fluidised bed are studied for drying: (1) airflow introduced at two corners of the

bed, and (2) airflow introduced uniformly from the bottom part of the bed. Two different

patterns of gas-solid fluidisation are observed for these two beds. Additionally, the drying rate

increased slightly with lowering the bed height and the solid hold-up. In contrast, the moisture

and size distribution of food grains become more uniform with decreasing the bed height or

increasing the solid hold-up. This grain scale model would be useful to the design and control

of the food grain drying process in a fluidised bed.

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 PUBLICATIONS DURING ENROLMENT

Summary of outcomes

 Published and accepted papers = 1

 Paper submitted for publication = 1

 Paper to be submitted for publication = 2

 Conference presentations = 4

Publications

 Azmir, J., Hou, Q. F., & Yu, A. B. (2018). Discrete particle simulation of food grain

drying in a fluidised bed. Powder Technology, 323, 238-249 (Based on Chapter 3).

 Azmir, J., Hou, Q. F., & Yu, A. B. (2018). CFD-DEM simulation of drying of food

grains with particle shrinkage. Powder Technology, 343, 792-802 (Based on Chapter

4).

 Azmir J., Hou, Q., & Yu, A. (2018). A CFD-DEM study of the effects of grain

properties on drying and shrinkage of food grain in a fluidised bed (2018) (Manuscript

to be submitted for publication) (Based on Chapter 5).

 Azmir J., Hou, Q., & Yu, A. Food drying process and its numerical modelling (2018)

(Manuscript to be submitted for publication) (Based on Chapter 2).

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Conferences

 Azmir J., Hou, Q.F. and Yu, A.B. CFD-DEM simulation of drying of food grain in a

fluidised bed (2018). World Congress of Particle Technology 8, 22-26 April 2018,

Orlando, Florida.

 Azmir J., Hou, Q.F. and Yu, A.B. A CFD-DEM simulation of food drying process

(2017). Chemeca 2017 - RACI Centenary Congress, 23-26 July 2017, Melbourne,

Victoria, Australia.

 Azmir J., Hou, Q.F. and Yu, A.B. Discrete particle simulation of food drying process

(2017). CEPA conference. Monash University, Clayton, Australia.

 Azmir J., Hou, Q.F. and Yu, A.B. CFD-DEM study of the effects of grain properties on

drying and shrinkage of food grain in a fluidised bed. Abstract accepted for presentation

at “The 2nd International Symposium on Computational Particle Technology, 2018.”

2-4 December 2018, Melbourne, Australia.

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