Drying Kinetic of Prehydrated and Extruded Clay Mat

The isothermal drying of prehydrated and extruded clay mat was investigated on a
laboratory scale over a temperature and relative humidity range from 20°C to 40°C and 15% to 70%
respectively. Two sets of polymer enhanced clay mats were used in this study. By measuring the mass
loss of the samples during the isothermal drying process basis dependencies necessary to describe the
kinetic drying process was obtained. The most commonly used model, Page, Wang & Singh,
Henderson & Pabis and Thin layer equation were used to fit experimental data using a nonlinear
regression analysis. The fit quality of the proposed model was evaluated by using the standard error of
estimate, relative percent error and coefficient of correlation. Results probed that the Page model was
more appropriated to predict prehydrated and extruded clay mat for the range of temperatures and
relative humidity studied. Applied model analysis enabled evaluation of the main transport properties:
drying constant, drying rate, effective diffusion coefficient and exponential model parameter. It was
found that the drying condition and type of polymer incorporated in the clay mat strongly influenced
the drying kinetic and transport parameters.

Citation:
Loh, E.W.K. and Wijeyesekera, D.C. (2009) ‘Drying Kinetic of Prehydrated and Extruded Clay Mat’ Proceedings of the AC&T, pp. 95-101..