Modeling Plain Vacuum Drying by Considering a Dynamic Capillary Pressure

A coupled drying model for wood is proposed by introducing a dynamic capillary pressure. The pressures of non-wetting phase, the wetting phase, and the capillary pressure at equilibrium has been considered as non-static; this approach includes a two-scale model. According to numerical results, liquid, water vapor and air dynamics in the chamber have strong interactions with re-homogenization in the surface, controlled by capillary forces. The results at 60–100 bar and 70 °C are discussed. The phenomenological one-dimensional drying model is solved by using the COMSOL’s coefficient form and a global equation format. A good description of drying kinetics, moisture redistribution, and mass fluxes is obtained. A comprehensible transition at the fiber saturation point is well simulated.