This work aims to study numerically the moisture absorption in polymer composite reinforced with vegetable fibers using the Langmuir model which considers the existence of free and entrapped water molecules inside the material. A three-dimensional and transient modeling for describing the water absorption process inside the composite and its numerical solution via finite volume method were presented and discussed. Application has been made for polymer composites reinforced with sisal fiber. Emphasis was given to the effect of the layer thickness of fluid close to the wall of the composite in the progress of water migration. Results of the free and entrapped solute (water) concentration, local moisture content and average moisture content, at different times of process, and inside the composite were presented and analyzed. It was verified that concentration gradients of the molecules (free and entrapped) are higher in the material surface, at any time of the process, and concentration of free solute is greater than the concentration of entrapped solute. It was verified that the water layer thickness surrounding the composite strongly affects the moisture absorption rate.
In the manufacturing process of ceramic brick, the step of drying needs the control of process variables to uniformly dry the porous material, producing a good end-product. The majority of numerical simulations involving drying of ceramic materials is performed considering only the solid domain, resulting in a very simplified and limited study. This way, the objective of this work is the analysis of the drying process with hot air of an industrial hollow clay brick inside the oven at different temperatures by using computational fluid dynamic (CFD). The results of the temperature and water mass distribution inside the brick and of air in the oven at different times of the drying process are shown, analyzed and checked with experimental data, and it was obtained in a concordance with the data. An equation to calculate the brick water mass diffusivity depending on the drying air temperature was proposed.
This work presents a non-steady state and three-dimensional mathematical modeling to predict moisture transport (based on the Langmuir-Type Model) inside the vegetable fiber-reinforced composite materials. The numerical solutions of the governing equations have been obtain using the finite-volume method. The model was apply for vegetable fiber-reinforced polymer composites. Emphasis to the geometrical dimension effect of the composite in the water absorption process was given. Results of the average moisture content, free and entrapped water molecules concentration kinetics and free and entrapped water molecules concentration distributions inside the material along the process are shown and analyzed. In the distributions of the analyzed properties, it was observed that the geometric dimensions of the composite has influence in the water absorption process.
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