Determination of optimum operation conditions in an ultrasound assisted fibrous porous media drying process

Ultrasound technology has a great potential in fibrous porous media dehydration process, and the effectiveness is affected by ambient condition and material parameters. For quantitative evaluation the effect of ambient temperature, relative humidity, air velocity, moisture ratio and material thickness on ultrasonic enhancement, this paper has made an investigation on eight different drying models, i.e., the Newton, the Page, the Modified Page, the Henderson and Pabis, the Logarithmic, the Two term, the Two term exponential and the Midilli model. The result shows that, the Modified Page model is much more accurate than the others in describing the fibrous porous media dehydration process assisted by the power ultrasound. The role of ultrasound in dehydration appears to be more important under lower ambient temperature, proper air velocity and higher relative humidity. Beyond that, the effectiveness of ultrasound application increases with the rising of the initial moisture ratio and material thickness.