Water vapour adsorption study in spherical particles packed in a cylindrical container

Abstract

In this work the water vapour adsorption was studied, during the initial states of absorption, for different piles of granules held in a cylindrical container. A diffusion model was presented for the description of the physical phenomenon whereby water vapour penetrates along the piles of cylindrical pores. The differential mass balance equation was solved numerically using a finite-difference method. The numerical solutions were tested through the measurement of water vapour mass uptake for different piles of silica gel and breakfast cereals (popcorns), being observed that they are in good agreement with the experimental values.