In order to reveal the physical drying characteristics of various kinds of cotton fabrics and further provide theoretical guides for designing drying equipment and improving drying technologies, a finite element model is built that is able to describe coupling of the drying process between fabrics and environment. Specifically, three kinds of cotton fabrics mesoscopic structures parameters and mechanical properties are firstly measured and then these fabrics are equivalent to porous media, and the equivalent media can characterize the fabrics precisely. Then, the formulas for calculating the convection heat transfer and thermodynamic properties of fabrics are also improved and verified by corresponding experiments. The results shows that the improved formulas can calculate the properties more accurately. Next, we apply this model to analyze the regular change of surface temperature and water content with time during the drying process of three kinds of fabrics under different technologies. The results indicates that the coupled heat and mass transfer of drying processes are obviously affected by liquid phase transition. In addition, with higher wind temperature, the velocity of water evaporation inside fabrics is faster and, when water content inside fabric becomes lower in the drying process, the velocity of water evaporation decreases. The numerical values agrees well with the corresponding experimental values: The mean absolute error of water content inside fabric in the drying process is less than 1.51 g, while the average absolute error of fabric surface temperature is about 1.63℃, which means this model can precisely capture the coupling drying process of various kinds of cotton fabrics inside the oven. It is expected that the model can be applied for providing theoretical guidance for designing structures of drying equipment and improving drying technologies.
As an indispensable part of textile processing, the fabric drying process has a great impact on product quality and overall energy consumption. To reveal the characteristics of the continuous drying process of various fabrics and optimize process parameters for improving productivity and saving energy, a finite element model is built to simulate the continuous fabric drying process, and an optimization method is applied to optimize process parameters based on the model. Specifically, a finite element model is first built; the model can predict distribution of water content and surface temperature of three kinds of fabric in the continuous drying process under different process parameters. The model is then verified by experiments, and the experimental results agree well with the numerical results: The mean absolute errors of distribution of water content and surface temperature of fabrics are 4.22% and 2.15℃, respectively. The numerical results indicate that wind velocity, wind temperature, and fabric velocity have a significant influence on the drying rate and surface temperature of fabrics in the continuous drying process, which, however, are not affected obviously by initial water content. It is also found that under the same initial and technological conditions, the drying rate and surface temperature of fabrics in the continuous drying process are lower than those in the intermittent drying process. Second, the Taguchi method is applied to design continuous fabric drying schemes, considering the interaction effect of technological parameters on the drying process. The numerical model is then applied to simulate these schemes, and the TOPSIS method is applied to analyze and compare these numerical results. The optimal technological parameters are determined; the optimal parameters can help to save energy by about 27.8 % and enhance energy efficiency by about 16 % in the continuous drying process. It is worth noting that the interaction effect of fabric velocity and wind temperature on the continuous drying process is more significant than their independent effects.
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