Sh. Rafiee,
Volume 10, Issue 3 (10-2006)
Abstract
Rapid drying can increase brittleness of and induce internal cracks in the grain which predispose the product to breakage during subsequent activities. To fully understand the drying process requires an accurate description of the drying mechanism. Kernel equilibruim moisture content (EMC) is a property strongly related to agricultural products drying phenomena. Its accurate prediction can lead to optimisation of drying processes, especially in highly automated computer aided drying systems. In this study, a finite element formulation and solution of a set of coupled conductive heat and diffusive moisture transfer equations, to improve grain drying simulation of axisymmetric bodies are presented. Axisymmetric linear triangular elements with two degrees of freedom per node are used to discretize the rice grain in model for different equilibrium moisture content (from 7.5 to 0.12 d.b.%). For the purpose of this study, one medium grain, ‘Sepidrod CV.’, was used. During the thin layer drying, the drying air temperature of 69 °C and initial moisture content of 17.23 d.b.%, were adopted. A high relation has been observed when the output of model with 11.5 d.b.% EMC was compared to experimental data obtained by others. The least and most root mean square error analysis (RMSE) calculated for models at different EMC with experimental data were 0.0091 and 0.1025. The least and most mean relative deviation modulus were 1.394 and 5.129, respectively. Considering the mean errors of the models in relation to the obtained experimental data, the equilibrium moisture content for 11.5 d.b gave the best result.
M. Zabardast, F. Daneshvar Vousoughi,
Volume 23, Issue 2 (9-2019)
Abstract
Seismic study of canyon sites has always been one of the important fields of seismic studies because of massive structures such as dams that are built in such sites. Jointed rock mass in rock canyon sites is one of the main site effects that can change the seismic waves. In this research, we studied the influence of this factor on the scattering of seismic waves. To fulfil this goal, we employed a coupled method combining the finite element method in the near field with boundary elements in the far field. To simulate the behaviour of jointed rock mass, we used the linear elastic model. Based on the results of the numerical analyses, jointed rock mass could have significant effects on the seismic waves in some special conditions. These conditions are the angle of incident wave, the thickness of layers and the material properties of the jointed rock mass. So it is necessary to consider this factor in the seismic structure design in the canyon sites.
