Generalized drying curves in conductive/convective paper drying

This work presents a study related to conductive/convective drying of paper (cellulose) sheets over heated surfaces, under natural and forced air conditions. The experimental apparatus consists in a metallic box heated by a thermostatic bath containing an upper surface on which the paper samples (about 1 mm thick) are placed. The system is submitted to ambient air under two different conditions: natural convection and forced convection provide by an adjustable blower. The influence of initial paper moisture content, drying (heated surface) temperature and air velocity on drying curves behavior is observed under different drying conditions. Hence, these influence is studied through the proposal of generalized drying curves. Those curves are analyzed individually for each air condition exposed above and for both together. A set of equations to fit them is proposed and discussed