KINETICS OF MICROWAVE DRYING OF A FREE-FLOWING ORGANIC MATERIAL

V. A. Kalender'yan, I. L. Boshkova, and N. V. Volgusheva

UDC 664.723.047

The kinetics of drying of a dense buckwheat layer in a 
microwave electromagnetic field of frequency 2.45 GHz has been investigated 
for different amounts of the material charged into a working chamber. 
Analysis of the kinetics curves has shown that the drying of the material 
studied is divided into the periods of heating, drying with a constant 
rate, and drying with a decreasing rate. The influence of the power 
supplied as well as the mass and dimensions of a sample on the rate 
of its drying has been investigated and a formula for calculating 
this rate has been obtained. It has been established that, in the 
process of drying of a disperse material, the amount of microwave 
energy converted into heat energy depends not only on the mass of 
a sample, but also on the thickness and area of its surface layer. 
Generalized equations for calculating the moisture content in a layer 
of a free-flowing material and its temperature have been obtained.

Odessa State Academy of Cold, 1/3 Dvoryanskaya Str., Odessa, 65082, 
Ukraine; email: ira_boshkova@mail.ru. Translated from 
Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 79, No. 3, pp. 123-127, 
May-June, 2006. Original article submitted November 30, 2004; 
revision submitted June 10, 2005.