Modelisation and Simulation of Heat and Mass Transfers during Solar Drying of Sewage Sludge with Introduction of Real Climatic Conditions

Abstract

Sewage sludge presents a real problem with the urban and industrial expanding. So, the drying technique is indispensable in the sludge treatment process to minimize its volume and its revalorization. For cost and environmental reasons, the solar drying is becoming increasingly attractive for small and medium wastewater treatment plants. Therefore, the aim of this work is the modelisation of solar dryer of residual sludge. The model studied is a rectangular agricultural greenhouse. In the lower part, the sludge (assimilated to a porous medium), acts as an absorber. It is subjected to a forced laminar flow. The transfers in the greenhouse and the porous medium are described respectively by the classical equations of forced convection and the Darcy-Brinkman-Forchheimer model. The implicit finite difference method is used to discretize the governing differential equation. The algebraic systems obtained are solved using the Gauss, Thomas and Gauss-Seidel algorithms. In order to complete the model and to determine the drying rate we associate a model of the sewage sludge drying kinetics. This work is realized with the meteorological data of the Tataouine region in the south of Tunisia. This data have undergone statistical treatment using the Liu and Jordan method. In order to show the advantages of solar drying, we especially studied the various transfer modes, the drying kinetics and the dryer performance.

Keywords

• Heat and mass transfers; Forced convection; Solar drying; Sewage sludge; Dryer performance.