Mass Conductivity of Capillary-Porous Colloidal Materials Subjected to Convective Drying

Mass conducting (diffusional) properties of capillary-porous colloidal materials have been studied experimentally in the process of their convective drying depending on the moisture content and temperature of the material using as an example maize grains of three varieties. The physical mechanisms that influence the dependence of the mass conductivity coefficient of such a material on its moisture content are considered. It is shown that provided there is invariance of the dependence of the local temperature of the material on its local moisture content, the mass conductivity coefficient of the material can be determined depending on the moisture content of the latter and on the drying agent temperature, which simplifies the calculation of the drying kinetics substantially.