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Determination of Parameters for an Alfalfa Rotary Dryer

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  Paper number  056186,  2005 ASAE Annual Meeting . (doi: 10.13031/2013.19642) @2005
Authors:   Xianzhe Zheng, Yiyuan Jiang, Yubin Lan
Keywords:   Alfalfa, Drying, Rotary dryer, Dimensional analysis

All variables --wet alfalfa input capacity, dry alfalfa output capacity, alfalfa stem length, rotary speed, heated air temperature, air flow velocity and flight amount were integrated and derived into four terms based on the dimensional homogeneity theorem. An improved similitude theorem was used to design an experiment program for the abovementioned drying. A set of component equations involving the drying parameters was derived from an improved Murphys theorem, and the most of its correlation coefficients are higher than 0.99. The validation results show that most of the relative errors of Pi terms are lower than 10% and are acceptable in engineering. The experimental results justified that theorem of following advantages: fewer numbers of tests, less strict requirements on the variables intervals, and higher precision of prediction these models may be used to study parameter interaction effects on the conveyor performance, which may be useful in the design and selection of rotary dryers for drying alfalfa hay.

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