TY - JOUR A2 - Liu, Jun AU - Zhang, Zhijun AU - Zhang, Shiwei AU - Su, Tianyi AU - Zhao, Shuangshuang PY - 2013 DA - 2013/04/27 TI - Cortex Effect on Vacuum Drying Process of Porous Medium SP - 120736 VL - 2013 AB - Corns, fruits, and vegetables are usually used as porous medium in drying process. But in fact, it must be considered as the cortex effect on mass transfer because the mass transfer of cortex is very difficult than inner medium. Based on the theory of heat and mass transfer, a coupled model for the porous medium vacuum drying process with cortex effect is constructed. The model is implemented and solved using COMSOL software. The water evaporation rate is determined using a nonequilibrium method with the rate constant parameter Kr that has been studied. The effects of different vapor pressures (1000, 5000, and 9000 Pa), initial moisture contents (0.3, 0.4, and 0.5 water saturation), drying temperatures (323, 333, and 343 K), and intrinsic permeability for cortex part (10−13, 10−14, 10−15 m2) on vacuum drying process were studied. The results facilitate a better understanding of the porous medium vacuum drying process that nearer to the reality. SN - 1024-123X UR - https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/120736 DO - 10.1155/2013/120736 JF - Mathematical Problems in Engineering PB - Hindawi Publishing Corporation KW - ER -