RESULTS

The aim of the experiment is to determine the drying rate of wet towel, and then compare the experimental drying rate with heat and mass transfer correlations. First Week

In the first week of the experiment, two towels are used to estimate their drying rates at the same conditions. We conduct the experiment with two towels in order to estimate whether towel properties are affecting the drying rate or not. Firstly, the properties of each towel are estimated and tabulated in Table-3.1. Towels are hanged vertically Table 3.1 Properties of towels Dimensions Length (cm) Towel 1 (Blue Towel) Towel 2 (Green Towel) 47.5 65.5 76.5 143.5 39.5 Width (cm) 58.3 Dry (g) 61.5 Weight Wet (g) 129.5

Then, the dry bulb and wet bulb temperatures of the room is measured as 16.5C and 12.5C, respectively. Towels are weighted in 10 minute time intervals and the wet solid weights are recorded properly. Experimental drying rates of the towels are calculated with the Equation3.1. (3.1) Where Rc is the drying rate in g/m2.min, A is the exposed surface area for drying in m2, w is the weight loss in g and t is the time interval in min. Wet solid weights and calculated experimental drying rates are tabulated in Table-3.2.

Table-3.2 Experimental drying rates of towel 1 and towel 2 according to the time Towel 1 (Blue Towel) Time, t (min) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 Weight (g) 129.5 127.0 124.5 122.0 120.0 118.1 116.0 114.1 112.0 110.2 108.4 106.4 104.5 102.5 100.3 98.4 96.4 94.4 90.5 88.4 87.1 Drying Rate (g/m .min) 0 0.54281 0.54281 0.54281 0.51566 0.49504 0.48853 0.47767 0.47496 0.46561 0.45810 0.45596 0.45234 0.45095 0.45286 0.45017 0.44917 0.44829 0.47043 0.46967 0.46030
2

Towel 2 (Green Towel) Weight (g) 129.6 127.0 124.5 121.0 118.0 115.5 113.6 110.0 107.3 104.8 101.8 99.6 97.5 94.6 92.4 90.3 88.4 86.8 84.9 83.3 82.1 Drying Rate (g/m2.min) 0 0.40176 0.40176 0.45534 0.46203 0.44998 0.42587 0.44768 0.44596 0.44105 0.44515 0.43680 0.42855 0.43144 0.42587 0.41998 0.41282 0.40365 0.40176 0.39077 0.38088

Figure 3.1 shows the change in weight of the towels with respect to time. Figure 3.2 shows the change in drying rate according to the time passed for blue towel.

150 140 130 120 Weight (g) 110 100 90 80 70 60 0 50 100 150 200 250 Time (min) Blue Towel Green Towel

Figure 3.1: Change in weight of towels

0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 0 50 100 time(min) 150 200 250 Blue Towel

drying rate(g/m2.min)

Figure 3.2: Drying rate of blue towel

% moisture content can be defined as the grams of water contained per grams of dry material. (3.2) Where m is the weight of the material at any time, mdry is the dry weight; m0 is the initial wet weight of the material. The moisture content versus time for the blue towel is shown in Figure 3.3.

120 100

moisture content(%)

80 60 Blue Towel 40 20 0 0 50 100 time(min) 150 200

Figure 3.3: Moisture content of blue towel Figure 3.4 shows the change in drying rate with respect to moisture content for the blue towel.

0.6 0.55 0.5 0.45 0.4 0.35 20 40 60 80 100 120 moisture content(%) Blue Towel

drying rate(g/m^2.min)

Figure 3.4: Drying rate with respect to moisture content for blue towel

The curves that relates drying rate to time, moisture content with respect to time and drying rate with respect to moisture content for the green towel is given in Appendix.

Second week In the second week of the experiment, the effect of position, temperature and material on drying rate is observed. Position effect is analyzed by placing a towel horizontally, which was dried vertically at the first week of the experiment. Temperature effect is analyzed by using a towel, which was dried in first week experiment at different temperature. And material effect on drying rate is analyzed by using a pasteboard. Table 3-3 shows the properties of the materials used in second week of the experiment. Table 3-3: Material properties for the second week Dimensions Length (cm) Width (cm) Dry (g) Weight Wet (g)

Towel 1 (Blue Towel) Towel 2 (Green Towel) pasteboard

39.5

58.3

61.5

119.6

47.5

65.5

77

136.6

38.5

29.5

36.3

62.5

At second week, wet bulb and dry bulb temperatures are recorded as 12.5C and 14.5 C respectively. The materials weighed for 10 minute intervals as first week and experimental rates are calculated by using equation 3.1. Table 3-4 gives the experimental rate values for the second week. Table 3-4: Experimental results for the second week Towel 1 (Blue Towel) Time, t (min) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 Weight (g) 119.6 117.4 115.7 114.2 112.4 111.0 109.2 107.7 106.1 104.6 103.1 101.5 100.6 Drying Rate (g/m2.min) 0 0.47767 0.42339 0.39082 0.39082 0.37345 0.37635 0.36911 0.36639 0.36187 0.35825 0.35726 0.34378 Towel 2 (Green Towel) Weight (g) 136.6 133.3 130.9 128.7 126.7 124.4 122.5 120.6 118.8 116.8 115.1 113.2 111.6 Drying Rate (g/m2.min) 0 0.53033 0.45802 0.42319 0.39775 0.39213 0.37766 0.36733 0.35757 0.35356 0.34552 0.34187 0.33481 Weight (g) 62.5 61.0 59.5 58.6 57.3 56.3 55.1 54.4 53.4 52.2 51.6 50.8 49.8 Drying Rate (g/m2.min) 0 0.66036 0.66036 0.57231 0.57231 0.54589 0.54296 0.50942 0.50077 0.50383 0.47956 0.46825 0.46592 Pasteboard

130 140 150 160 170 180

99.0 97.4 96.2 94.3 92.7 90.8

0.34406 0.34429 0.33871 0.34332 0.34356 0.34739

109.8 107.9 106.0 104.5 102.8 101.0

0.33130 0.32945 0.32784 0.32242 0.31952 0.31784

48.2 47.5 46.7 46.0 45.2 -

0.48426 0.47168 0.46372 0.45399 0.45399 -

According to the data tabulated in Table 3.4 the changes in weight of the materials is given in Figure 3.5.
160 140 120 100 Weight (g) 80 60 40 20 0 0 50 100 150 200 250 Time (min) Blue Towel Green Towel Pasteboard

Figure 3.5: Weight change with time at second week By using the same procedure that was applied for the first week, the figures for drying rate and moisture content with respect to time and drying rate according to the % moisture content is drawn. Figure 3.6, 3.7 and 3.8 shows the drying rate with respect to time, % moisture content with respect to time and drying rate according to % moisture content respectively for the blue tower. See Appendix for the related figures of green towel and pasteboard observed at second week.

0.6 0.5 drying rate(g/m^2.min) 0.4 0.3 Blue Towel 0.2 0.1 0 0 50 100 time(min) 150 200

Figure 3.6: Drying rate of blue towel at second week

120 100 moisture content(%) 80 60 Blue Towel 40 20 0 0 50 100 time(min) 150 200

Figure 3.7: Moisture content with respect to time for the blue towel at second week.

0.6 0.5 drying rate(g/m^2.min) 0.4 0.3 Blue Towel 0.2 0.1 0 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 moisture content(%)

Figure 3.8: Change in drying rate according to moisture content for blue towel at second week.

Drying rates are calculated by using heat and mass transfer correlations given below(3.3) to compare the experimental results with the results obtained from correlations.
(3.3) To use equation (3.3) the constraints are tabulated at Table 3.5.[] Table 3.5: constraints for equation (3.3) a Vertical position 1.36 1/5 104-109 0.59 1/4 0.13 1/3 Horizontal position 105-2107 105-1011 0.54 2107-31010 0.14 1/3 0.58 1/5 m

See appendix for the rates calculated by using equation (3.3).