Analysis and Simulation of Sericite Mica Drying

Abstract

Drying is a process that requiresa high amount of energy. In most situations drying proses was a major contributor to the production costs. Study by many researchers have proven thatcomputational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation is acost effective and efficient tools to analyse and optimise the drying process. The objectives of this study are to analyse the sericite mica drying process and develop a CFD simulation model to simulate the drying behaviour of sericite mica. Physical experiment was carried out to validate the simulation results at 50, 60 and 70oC drying temperature. The experimental results show that higher drying rate was achieved with higher temperature. The result of simulated moisture content was compared with the experimental data and the root mean square error (RMSerror) and normalized root mean square error (NRMSerror) was calculated. The results for both RMSerrorand NRMSerrorwere less than 5%, which shows reasonable accuracy.