Numerical study of the effect of potato cuboids separation in a convective drying.

A numerical study (conjugate modeling) of potato cuboid separation in convective drying is performed with the Large Eddy Simulation approach. Any in-line potato array is represented by a single interacted zone through periodic boundary conditions. Numerical code is validated with four experimental studies focused on hydrodynamics (two cases), heat transfer (one case), and mass transfer (one case). Twelve case studies have been proposed to study the effect of streamwise and spanwise distances on heat and mass transfer. Results show that low streamwise separations (0.25) strongly affect the potato drying by the presence of a quasi-stationary wake that causes a blocking effect. The potato cuboid's best thermal uniformity and mass transfer are presented at a spanwise distance (0.75) and streamwise separations (1.0). Results can be applied to get uniform heat and mass transfer in drying chambers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]