Abstract:
Drying is a simultaneous heat and mass transfer process which involves significant energy consumption. For
sustainable processing practice, ultrasonic-assisted drying is often implemented. In order to assist in process design
and optimization, a physically-meaningful drying model is useful. The REA (reaction engineering approach), which
has been shown to be accurate to model several challenging drying cases, is implemented here to model the
ultrasonic-assisted drying with various intensities. The relative activation energy (ΔEv,b) generated from one accurate
drying experiment is used to model the ultrasound-assisted drying with various intensities. The results of modeling
match very well with the experimental data. The REA is accurate to model the ultrasonic-assisted drying under
various intensities (i.e. 8, 12, 21, 29 and 31 kW/m3). The mechanisms of ultrasonic-assisted drying can be explained
well by the REA. A landmark for process intensification of drying process has been set up by the REA. The model
can be readily adopted in industrial settings for process design and optimization.
