Block oriented modeling of drying processes Original Research Article

Block oriented system simulation based on physical model was used to simulate the drying process of different agricultural materials instead of uncertain empirical and half-empirical equations. The main purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the advantages of this method and to show how to build up a general library with several components which can help simulate a randomly structured dryer. A well defined and known model was used as a basis. This model was solved originally with the help of a numeric method and neglecting some dynamic changes, but it is now solved by a block oriented method. It was found that block oriented approaches have advantages compared to other methods. In many cases using physically based modeling means to solve several differential equations. Solving of these equations sometimes is impossible with traditional methods, but it is very simple with the help of this technique and creating new blocks during the work which help further developments. A fixed bed drying model was solved in a block oriented system consisting of air and grain moisture and temperature distributions. Finally, the moisture distribution of layers and a comparison with other model were performed.