A Review of Models for Estimation of Moisture Evaporation Rate from Clothes Inside a Clothes Dryer

Abstract

Heat pump tumble dryers, air-vented dryers and condenser dryers are widely used as clothes dryers. Clothes dryers use hot air to absorb moisture from textiles to get them dry after a wash by passing drying air through the drum. To simulate the drying process of clothes in the drum and to obtain the moisture evaporation rate, it is necessary to use an accurate model to predict the moisture transfer coefficient from the textile to the air in the drum as well as the mass transfer area between the drying air and the textile. In this study, a comprehensive review of the literature on the prediction of the moisture evaporation rate inside the drum of a clothes dryers was conducted. It was found that researchers generally used constant values, fitting models, dimensionless correlations, and Chilton–Colburn analogy to predict the area–mass transfer coefficient. Moreover, few researchers used the effectiveness model for the prediction of moisture evaporation rate. The comprehensive review of the literature showed that all of the previous models for prediction of the moisture evaporation rate have some limitations in terms of generality or accuracy. Therefore, the development of a new accurate model for prediction of the moisture evaporation rate inside the drum of clothes dryers is crucial.