A study of sublimation-dehydration within a porous medium as a result of volumetric heating, such as that associated with microwave heating, is presented in this paper. A semi-infinite frozen porous medium with constant thermal properties subject to a sublimation-dehydration process involving a volumetric heat source is considered. One-dimensional analytical solutions for dimensionless temperature, vapor concentration, and pressure were obtained. A sensitivity study was also conducted in which the effects of the material properties inherent in these solutions were analyzed. Finally, some of the assumptions used in the formulation of the problem were analyzed, and predicted drying curves were found to compare reasonably with previously published experimental results.

Issue Section:
Phase-Change Heat Transfer
Keywords:
Conduction, Mass Transfer, Phase-Change Phenomena
Topics:
Heating, Porous materials, Drying, Heat, Heat conduction, Mass transfer, Materials properties, Microwave heating, Pressure, Temperature, Thermal properties, Vapors
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Copyright © 1994
 by The American Society of Mechanical Engineers
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