Abstract
In this paper, the drying of layered packed beds due to convective heating has been investigated theoretically and experimentally. An one-dimensional drying model in layered packed beds has been presented, accounting for the water transport, the diffusion of water vapor and the latent heat transfer due to vaporization. The effect of the structure of packed beds affecting the mass of drying was clarified in detail. It was found that the mass of drying strongly depends on the water saturation at the boundary surface on convective heating side. The predicted results were in good agreement with experimental results using packed beds composed of glass beads.
