Application of CFD Simulation to the Design of an Innovative Drying Chamber

Abstract

Drying and sanitising equipment has been very common in industrial plants since the pandemic. These are devices that consume significant amounts of energy. The best solution is to use a drying chamber equipped with a heat pump, which allows partial recovery of the energy. In the design of the drying chamber, the drying time is important, which depends both on the parameters of the heat pump itself, and the geometry and airflow of the drying chamber. The geometry and airflow supply should be arranged to ensure a uniform distribution of velocity throughout the drying area. For this purpose, the use of CFD simulations has been proposed. A model was developed in ANSYS/FLUENT where all model parameters, including the optimal mesh density, turbulence models, etc., were determined. The model was verified on the experimental results of the basic design of the chamber. Then an innovative design was proposed that was modelled and optimised in terms of the distribution of the inlet’s perforation. The final design was made, and, at the same time, the simulation’s results were verified by measuring the velocity of airflow in the new design. Together with the optimisation of the heat pump, this made it possible to reduce the drying time by 50%, with a simultaneous reduction in the energy consumed.

Keywords

• CFD simulation
• drying chamber design