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In the present study, a finite volume approach for solving two‐dimensional, two‐fluids flows with heat and mass transfer was developed for predicting the flow of particulate materials through pneumatic dryer. The model was solved for a two‐dimensional steady‐state condition and considering axial and radial profiles for the flow variables. A two‐stage drying process was implemented. The numerical procedure includes discretization of calculation domain into torus‐shaped final volumes, solving the gas phase conservation equations by a modified semi‐implicit method for pressure‐linked equations algorithm, and the conservation equations of particulate phase were solved by the explicit forward difference algorithm. The mass momentum and energy coupling between the phases were considered by principles of the Interphase slip algorithm. In order to validate the theoretical and the numerical models, the developed models were applied to simulate the drying process of wet PVC particles in a large‐scale pneumatic dryer and to the drying process of wet sand in a laboratory‐scale pneumatic dryer. The predictions of the numerical simulations were compared successfully with the results of independent numerical and experimental investigations. Following the models validation, the two‐dimensional distributions of the flow characteristics were examined.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the coupled heat and mass transport of different shaped porous moist objects in a rectangular channel under the effects of convective drying. Numerical simulations were performed under turbulent conditions for cylindrical, triangular and rectangular shaped different food products in a two-dimensional channel.

Finite element method was used for the unsteady problem and, effects of drying air velocity (AV) and temperature on transport mechanism were evaluated. Three different food materials were used for the circular shaped object and drying performance of the products under different conditions was compared.

Results showed that, changing the air temperature has an important effect on drying for all shaped objects and all materials. The same effect was seen for the AV as, increasing the velocity had positive effects on drying. Two identical objects were placed in the channel one behind the other, and this configuration showed that location of the object in the channel is also important for drying. The moisture content in the object at the front is lower than in the object behind at the end of drying.

This paper can provide technical support to optimize drying performance in the industry with comprehensive data for the process.