4/21/22, 4:36 PM DSE: Lesson-4_1:Methods of EMC Determination

You are currently using guest access (Log in)

Drying and Storage Engineering 4(3+1)
Home ► Courses ► Existing Courses ► UG Courses - Agricultural Engineering ► Agricultural Engineering ► DSE ► Module 2. EMC ► Lesson-
4_1:Methods of EMC Determination

Navigation
Lesson-4_1:Methods of EMC Determination
Home
Site pages
However, in storage the moisture content controlled by circulation of air and
Current course
control of the relative humidity. Hall (1980) mentioned two different methods
DSE
for determining the EMC:
Participants
General 1. Static method, in which atmosphere surrounding the product comes to
Module 1. Moisture equilibrium with the product without mechanical agitation of air or product.
content and its
determination.
Module 2. EMC
Lesson 3.
Equilibrium
Moisture Content
(Emc) And I...
Lesson 3 Quiz
Lesson 4. EMC
Curve and EMC
Models
Lesson 4 Quiz
Lesson-
4_1:Methods of
EMC
Determination
Module 3. Drying
Theory and
Mechanism of 2. The dynamic method, in which the atmosphere surrounding the product itself is
drying
mechanically moved.
Module 4. Air
pressure within the He preferred the static method than the dynamic one. Although, the dynamic method is
grain bed, Shred...
quicker but represents problems in design and instrumentations. Therefore, the static
Module 6. Study of
different types of method has been used extensively. Several weeks may be required using static method,
dryers- perf... whereas, with dynamic method the data may be obtained in couple of days or less. He
Module 5. Different also stated that when using static method for determining the EMC, saturated salt
methods of drying
including pu...
solutions or acids may be used for maintaining the desired relative humidity at the
Module 7. Study of
temperature of storage.
drying and
dehydration of 1. Steps for equilibrium moisture content determination
agric...
Module 8. Types
For the determination of EMC curves, the following basic steps are necessary regardless of
and causes of the method used:
spoilage in storage.
Module 9. Storage 1. Sample collection
of perishable
products, function... 2. Exposure of the samples to different relative humidities (Rh) at a given
Module 10. temperature T (until equilibrium is reached, respectively)
Calculation of
refrigeration load. 3. Determination of moisture content

Module 11.
Conditions for  2. Principle of the dynamic method
modified
atmospheric sto... Equilibrium moisture content is an important moisture characteristic of porous
Module 12. Storage materials, but its determination has required considerable time and care and the
of grains:
judgement of equilibrium may eventually be arbitrary.

ecoursesonline.iasri.res.in/mod/page/view.php?id=865 1/4
4/21/22, 4:36 PM DSE: Lesson-4_1:Methods of EMC Determination
destructive agents, Dynamic method that can predict the equilibrium moisture content by curve-fitting to
...
sorption kinetics experiments was proposed in the absence of accuracy consideration.
Module 13. Storage
of cereal grains and
their prod...
In the equation of continuity of water in porous media, water diffusivity  is normally
Module 14. Storage
a function of the moisture content.
condition for various
fruits an... Relationship between the concentration of a mass in a porous material isothermally in
Module 15. equilibrium with that in the environment is called sorption isotherm.
Economics aspect
of storage When the mass is water, the relation between atmospheric relative humidity and
Courses equilibrium moisture content of materials is the water vapor sorption isotherm, which
is an indispensable material property when studying moisture behavior of porous
hydrophilic materials such as cement-based materials.

Especially in moisture transport analysis, moisture capacity that can convert the
chemical potential gradient or relative humidity gradient into moisture content
gradient, can be obtained from the water vapor sorption isotherm.
As the name implies, it takes so long time to obtain "equilibrium" values that
difficulties of changes in material properties may arise.
 3. Conventional methods

Correct equilibrium moisture content can be obtained when a relative humidity is

accurately generated and the adsorbed mass is continuously weighed.
Standard methods of relative humidity generation include the saturated salt solution
method, flow-division method that mixes dry and saturated air and the method altering
temperature or pressure or both. The volumetric method that isothermally changes the
vapor pressure in a vacuum system has been widely used in the chemical engineering
laboratory.
The saturated salt solution method can produce a relative humidity with a precision
of 1 percent when the container of the salt solution is stirred and the temperature is
controlled carefully.
Haggymassy combined weighing bottle with saturated salt solutions under vacuum
and determined isotherms of hardened cement pastes. The mean free path of water
vapor decreases under vacuum leading to an increase in its diffusivity in air. This
reduces the time to reach equilibrium and is effective in preventing carbonation of
cement based specimens. Yuasa and co-workers ground specimens into powder and
introduced stirring mechanism in a saturated salt solution container. With all these
means, the saturated salt solution method has an disadvantage of generating limited
number of relative humidities. This method, as well as the volumetric method, is a
standard with its simplicity, and is placed as the reference method of this study.
4. Principle of the dynamic method
In the equation of continuity of water in porous media, water diffusivity Dq is
normally a function of the moisture content q. In this experiment, the equation is
taken as linear because an adsorption experiment will be executed under a constant
relative humidity. For a sphere with a radius r, the water balance equation may be
given by:

ecoursesonline.iasri.res.in/mod/page/view.php?id=865 2/4
4/21/22, 4:36 PM DSE: Lesson-4_1:Methods of EMC Determination

Which can be converted to the one dimensional linear equation by substituting q with
u/r. The initial and the boundary conditions are that the surface moisture content of a
sphere with a radius R, or relative humidity in equilibrium with the moisture content, is
always constant and that the initial moisture content of the sphere in the beginning of
adsorption is zero,

 
With variables separation method, the following formula is obtained

where m(t) is the total mass passed from the surface of a sphere in a finite time, me is
the total mass passed after the infinitely long time and k is Dqπ2/R2.

Last modified: Thursday, 3 October 2013, 4:16 AM

ecoursesonline.iasri.res.in/mod/page/view.php?id=865 3/4
4/21/22, 4:36 PM DSE: Lesson-4_1:Methods of EMC Determination

You are currently using guest access (Log in)

DSE

ecoursesonline.iasri.res.in/mod/page/view.php?id=865 4/4