Mathematical model for calculating the temperature of cotton in a direct-flow drying drum.

In the paper, one parabolic-type boundary value problem is solved for determining the temperature field of the raw cotton and air components in drum dryers. In the proposed model, convective heat transfer is used according to Newton's law and the evaporation of moisture from the components of raw cotton (seeds, fiber) and the influence of air velocity are taken intoaccount. The resulting system of Galerkin's differential equations is solved by the finite-difference method in time. It is shown that the approximate solution is estimated according to Galerkin method in Sobolev space. The numerical results of the considered problem are obtained by the Bubnov–Galerkin method. A comparative analysis is carried out with experimental data. It is shown that the proposed mathematical model and its numerical algorithm adequately describe the drying process of raw cotton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]