Journal of Drying Technology, 1995, 13(5-7) :1153-1165, mailto :courtois@umr-genial.

org

COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN OF CORN DRYERS : A DYNAMIC APPROACH INCLUDING QUALITY PREDICTION Francis COURTOIS
INRA-ENSIA, 1 avenue des Olympiades, 91 305 MASSY Cedex, FRANCE email : courtois@massy.inra.fr

Key Words and Phrases : computer ; dryer ; dynamic model ; human interface ; simulation ; software. ABSTRACT
In France, cereal dryers have known important progress in the seventies due to the increase of energy cost. From this period, no significant improvements have been made. The need for a CAD software specially developed for French mixedflow corn dryers, including wet-milling quality prediction appeared clearly. We propose a new model of corn drying with significant improvements : -prediction of final wet-milling quality of the dried corn, -unsteady state potentialities to take into account variable drying conditions, any air re-circulation scheme, and to test control strategies. (and compatibility with micro-computer implementation) In fact, previous requirements lead to build a knowledge based dynamic model which is known to be rarely compatible with micro-computer calculation speed. Then considerable efforts were made at four levels : -coupling of quality and drying models -assumptions to simplify the complexity of equations -compartmental approach to limit the number of equations -new adaptive-step method for the numerical integration -new specific steady-state integration method to take into account air recirculation and final moisture content optimization. We focused also on the human interface : windows, menus, dialogs, mouse... Comparisons between simulations and industrial results has shown good agreement. The French most important constructors of cereal dryers has bought this software.

INTRODUCTION Cereal production is quite significant in France. Corn is the second largest production with an annual production of approximately 12 millions of tons. More than 90 % of this corn is dried artificially in mixed-flow dryers. Politics in France are very involved in the problems of exporting the cereal production. More than 50% of the production of corn is exported primarily to the EEC countries. In France, two main problems are encountered when drying grains such as corn : - Corn kernels are harvested at moisture content ranging from 25% (wet basis) to 40%. Thus, a drying operation is necessary and this implies an important cost (energy as well as investment). - For the same reason, to ensure high production capacity, high temperatures are preferred and this causes damage to quality. This quality degradation is very noticeable when considering the agroindustrial market, especially for the wet-milling industry. Important efforts made by the constructors lead to significant reduction of energy cost of drying. This alone is not sufficient. The drying industry also needs now to optimize the quality of dried grains. Until now, the only solution was to reduce the drying temperature leading to better quality but this also leads to smaller drying capacities. To proceed further, constructors have recognized the need for a CAD software to help them test new designs. Clearly, this software had to be very ergonomic, compatible with low cost computer implementation and sufficiently reliable for the prediction of quality, energy ratio and drying capacity. In the past two decades, concerning modelling and simulation of corn dryers, an important work has been done by Bakker Arkema et al. (1974) and lead to a FORTRAN software, but : - mixed-flow dryers are more complex than cross-flow ones, e.g. relaxation, air multi-recirculation - kinetics of quality degradation were not considered, - steady-state assumptions have been made, especially when neglecting internal gradients,

- work on computer aspects focused more on the numerical aspects than on the "human interface". This work has been reused and improved by many authors (Bruce, 1984 ; Brooker et al., 1992). Interesting works have been done by Karel et al. (1987), Nellist and Bruce (1987), Sokhansanj et al. (1985) concerning the modelling of coupled drying and quality degradation. Several criteria were considered : destruction of C vitamin in potatoes, germination probit of seeds of wheat, baking ability of wheat. Concerning physical degradations (fissuration), studies are limited to the thin layer level due to the important calculations needed for the finite element analysis (Haghigi and Segerlind, 1988 ; Litchfield and Okos, 1988). A recent and interesting work has been done by Sebastian (1992) who defines the "Drying Transfer Unit" and simulates a dryer as a series/parallel association of elementary drying blocks. We think that there is still a deficit of models coupling quality and drying. It may comes from the fact that we can't disconnect the quality model from the drying model leading to more complexity. Furthermore unsteady state behaviour (process dynamics) is rarely considered from the beginning of the study which would allow realtime optimization of the process. This is due probably to the lag between quality, process and process control engineers and scientists. The aim of this work was to build-up a dynamic model combining quality and drying for corn mixed-flow dryers and to implement an optimized numerical solution in a low cost micro-computer with an user-friendly interface. It needs the development of a dynamic model able to describe both : -the influence of design parameters -the influence of operating conditions, including control laws on the product qualities.

MODEL DEVELOPMENT Objectives of the Model Two points of view have to be considered : - theoretical aspects : the model must take into account all dynamics existing in a mixed-flow dryer (drying, cooling, tempering zones, air recirculation) and coupled quality degradation. The average error on prediction must be less than 10% for both grain flowrate and quality, in the range [10, 180C] for air temperature, [15, 40%] for the grain moisture content (w.b.) and [0, 100%] for the wet-milling quality. These ranges correspond to the industrial drying conditions from the grain point of view. - practical aspects : the simulation software must be able to work on a US$ 2000 micro-computer without particular computer skill. The result must come within one hour maximum of calculations. The software should allow the evaluation of any kind of mixed-flow dryer, existing or not. Discharge rate must be a result of the simulation while being an input variable of the model : the user should be allowed to force the output moisture content of the corn. Thus the software should be able to find out the grain discharge rate. Process Representation System analysis method allows simplification and decomposition of the problem and reduction of the variables. In figure 1, a typical three stage mixed-flow dryer is represented : - 2 drying stages with 2 different temperatures - 1 cooling stage at the bottom to ensure low product temperature at the exit and to re-use thermal energy of humid air. One should note that tempering stages are not represented and are usually between drying (or cooling) stages or, in some cases, at several places within drying stages. These stages are used in order to allow moisture to diffuse to the surface of the grain, thus increasing the drying rate. We should note that although the energy gain is known to be weak, it is clear that a resting period at high temperature strongly influences quality.

wet grains

humid air 140 C

hot air

burner

hot air

100 to 110C 50C

humid air

burner

ambient air 10C ambient air 10C dried grains

FIGURE 1 Schematic representation of a typical mixed-flow dryer The extractor can be of continuous or semi-continuous type. Whatever the case, grain extraction is always semi-continuous to facilitate product flow. This means that a grain sees its drying conditions changing at least every 1 or 2 minutes. A dynamic model is thus strongly recommended since grain is never in steady state even if the dryer can be considered to be in steady state. As shown in figure 2, air flows inside a drying compartment within ducts perpendicular to the grain flow. Air ducts are divided into successive layers of alternatively input or output flow. Thus air needs to get through the mass of grains to get outside. This is why, mixedflow dryers are usually viewed as combinations of elementary concurrent and counter-current flow dryers. It should be noticed that this implies a strong assumption concerning the air flow which is supposed to be a vertical plug-type one.

HUMID AIR EXIT exhaust air duct

dryer wall

air trajectory

HOT AIR INPUT

simulated view inside grain mass

hot air duct (input)

FIGURE 2 Perspective view of air trajectory and ducts in a dryer section In France, corn quality means wet-milling quality. The most widely used criterion is the result of the quick "Turbidity Test" which corresponds to the amount of survival thermo-sensitive proteins inside the grains (Courtois, 1991). We have shown (Courtois et al., 1991) that it was very well correlated with the thermal history of the grains. This means that quality modelling cant be considered apart from the drying model. Model Principle The basic concept is that, due to the objectives, we had to make a compromise between an accurate knowledge-based dynamic model and a fast semi-empirical model with poor robustness. The model consists of the classical Fick and Fourier first law of transfer in the case of a phase change (liquid/gas). Internal moisture content gradient is viewed as 3-concentric shells (figure 3) with three uniform moisture contents and one global temperature (temperature gradient is neglected). Similar models were developed by Toyoda (1988) for the intermittent drying of rice, and by Laguerre et al. (1989) for the drying of carrots under variable conditions. Details of the model construction can be found in Courtois (1991), Courtois et al. (1991).

Mass exchange coefficient : B 2 Heat transfer coefficient : Mass exchange coefficient : B 1 Mass transfer coefficient : p

Central compartment (#1) X 1 , Tg , Q Medium compartment (#2) X2 , T g , Q Peripheral compartment (#3) X 3 , Pv3 , T g , Q

Air Y, P va , Ta , Va

FIGURE 3 Compartmental analogy of a corn kernel Fohr et al. (1988) have discussed the influence of variable drying conditions on the performances of drying models : the internal moisture gradient should be taken into account to predict the unsteady-state behaviour (dynamics) of the product. From our point of view, the compartmental approach is the best compromise for the modelling of the internal moisture content gradient known to be responsible for the main dynamics observed during drying under variable conditions. A diffusive model would give the same results with more calculation since it needs to be integrate within ten discrete shells at least.

Equations The equations for the grain are :

B1 X1 = t g.1 .(X2 - X1) B1 B2 X2 = .(X X ) + 1 2 g.2 g.2 .(X3 - X2) t B2 m.a X3 = .(X X ) + 2 3 g.3 g.3 t -h.a - m.a.Lv Tg = g.(cpg + X.cpw) t [2] [1]

[3]

[4]

where h and m are reversible heat and mass (relative to partial pressure) transfer fluxes between air and grain and the average moisture content is X = 1.X1 + 2.X2 + 3.X3. The coefficients 1, 2 and 3 are proportions of each compartment on the global volume of the kernel. Since no steady-state assumptions are made and as non-linearities exist, this set of highly coupled equations must be solved numerically (Courtois et al., 1992). In terms of computations, we have only 4 coupled Ordinary Differential Equations (ODE) at the thin layer level instead of 11 for an equivalent diffusive model (when numerically integrated in 10 concentric shells for X and only one for Tg). For the air, assuming plug-type air flow and convection-vapourization, we have two Partial Differential Equations (PDE) :
Y Y m.a.(1-) t = -Va. z + a. Ta a.(1-) m.cpv.(Tg - Ta) + h Ta = -V . . a z + a.(cpa + Y.cpv) t Ta Y [6] [5]

These equations are stiff : t and t terms have been neglected to ensure numerical stability of the system (this assumption has been numerically validated). This is due to the difference of magnitude between air and grain dynamics.

Equation of order n reaction is classically used to model quality degradation :

Q n t = -KQ.Q [7]

were n is usually 0, 1 or 2 (reaction models of order zero, one or two are the most widely used). K Q is usually dependent on the grain state variables : moisture content and temperature. This is the main difficulty concerning the quality model : it depends strongly on the drying history of the product and, thus, on the drying model. Parameter Identification The volume ratios of the three compartments 1, 2 and 3 were chosen arbitrarily (respectively 0.45, 0.45 and 0.1) to ensure a very thin peripheral compartment (where the vaporisation takes place). The model parameters B1, B2, KQ and n had to be identified on the basis of thin layer experiments (table 1). These experiments were conducted on small scale laboratory dryer (Courtois,1991). A combination of ALIENOR (Cherruault, 1986), SIMPLEX and HOOKE & JEEVES methods were used to obtain a global optimum of the functional : 1 ( X exp Xcal )2 for the drying coefficients : 2
kinetics

and for the quality coefficients :

number _ of _ po int s po int s

X exp

1 (Q exp Qcal )2 Q exp2 kinetics number _ of _ po int s po int s

Table 1
MSDOS File MAIS5.CIN MAIS6.CIN MAIS7.CIN MAIS8.CIN MAIS9.CIN MAIS10.CIN MAIS11.CIN MAIS12.CIN MAIS13.CIN MAIS14.CIN MAIS15.CIN MAIS16.CIN MAIS17.CIN MAIS18.CIN MAIS19.CIN MAIS20.CIN MAIS21.CIN MAIS22.CIN MAIS23.CIN MAIS24.CIN MAIS25.CIN MAIS26.CIN MAIS27.CIN MAIS28.CIN MAIS29.CIN MAIS30.CIN MAIS31.CIN MAIS32.CIN MAIS34.CIN

Experiments used for identification purposes. (Unpublished data from the ENSIA)
T a (C) 56 109 56 59 106 106 106 115 75 91 40 65 125 49 56 57 40 56 56 56 76 76 106 107 57 137 150 76 106 Y 0.011 0.011 0.011 0.01 0.012 0.01 0.012 0.016 0.01 0.012 0.01 0.012 0.018 0.007 0.011 0.055 0.03 0.023 0.045 0.07 0.03 0.055 0.028 0.092 0.069 0.018 0.013 0.097 0.04 V a (m/s) 2 2 0.7 2.5 1.5 2.5 0.7 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 0.7 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 2.5 1.5 1.7 1.5 1.5

This lead to :
B1 = 0.01 kg.s-1.m-3 B2 = exp[-4.753+0.0421 Ta] kg.s-1.m-3 KQ = KQ.exp[-Ea / (R.(Tg+273.16))] s-1 and n=2 16 17 with KQ = -1.9561 . 10 + 5.4287 . 10 . X + 6.8210 . 1017 . X2 Ea = -133 200 J.mol-1 (energy of activation)

where only B2 and KQ are not constants (they depend on the grain state) as the diffusivity, which is often considered as an Arrhenius function of moisture content and/or temperature of the product.

B2 appears as a function of the air temperature while grain temperature would have been more logical. This approximation, made to achieve better results, is a limit of our model and may be due to the fact that we neglected the temperature gradient inside the kernel. To avoid experimental bias, we used : -a relative error method in order to consider the last part of drying with the same importance as the beginning where X is higher. -a criterion balanced by the number of experimental points to diminish the potentially strong influence of long kinetics. We have remarked that excessive degree of freedom for the model lead to lengthy exploration of numerous local optima. SIMULATION Numerical Aspects Equations [1] to [7] are difficult to integrate in time and space due to strong non-linearities, especially in m, and, above all, due to strong couplings, especially with respect to B2. For the discretisation of equations [1] to [5] we used EULER method which leads to 4 times faster calculations than classical RUNGE KUTTA 4. In fact, we have observed that the main factor of numerical instability is the couplings between equations much more than the concavity of the trajectories followed by the grain state variables. Thus the advantage of RUNGE KUTTA disappears while being more complex to calculate. The general and simple form of the discretisation is :
Zi Zi(t+t) = Zi(t) + t . t (t) [8]

with Zi = X1 or X2 or X3 or Tg An adaptive time-step method has been developed. At each step, t is evaluated as :
t = Zi Maximum { Zi.t } 0.05 [9]

This forces each variable not to change by more than 5% ensuring numerical stability of the system. It allows also a considerable gain in calculation speed : from 20% to 100%. Concerning the PDE, we have developed a specific coupled spacetime semi-implicit integration method : explicit in space and quasiimplicit in time (Courtois et al., 1992). One should note that classical implicit methods for space integration involve a time-consuming matrix inversion . Simulation of an industrial dryer consists of the numerical integration of a combination of different deep bed models (con- or countercurrent, drying, cooling or resting zone) which are strongly coupled in time (grain flow) and in space (air flow). Extraction is assumed to be an instantaneous translation of the whole mass of grain.
Iterations Grain Input #2 Air Flow #3 #4 End

Grain Output Calculating Deep Bed Steady-State Steady-State Calculated

FIGURE 4 progress of the integration at the same speed of the grain Assuming that a mixed-flow dryer can be described as a succession of con- or counter-current deep beds at different drying conditions, and assuming a global input/output steady-state of the dryer, simulation concerns only one deep bed at a time, successively from the input to the output of the dryer (figure 4). One should note that counter-current deep beds present a problem : present depends on the future. This is due to the fact that the top of

the bed receives humid air coming from the bottom i.e. chronologically older grains. To consider equivalently con- and counter-current deep beds, an iterative method, progressing with successive extraction, is employed until a steady-state is reached in the bed (figure 5).
Extraction Progression of the grains Extraction Extraction Extraction Constant ?

No

Time

Wetter

Drier

FIGURE 5 General algorithm for the steady-state research of a deep bed We should remark that adaptive time-step method is compatible with deep bed simulation : optimal t is calculated for the whole bed. Air recirculations through the dryer are taken into account by an iterative method similar to that used for the counter-current bed. Simulation is repeated until the characteristics of used air become constant. This happens after 3 to 5 simulations. Direct simulation of dryers with air recirculations would take about two to ten times longer than this indirect method. This is due to the fact, like counter-current bed simulation, that present depends on the future. Computer Implementation To speed up the calculations, decomposition of the algorithm into distinctive sub-routines has been avoided : the computer takes time when passing from a routine to another. For the same reason, all the calculations are done in single precision directly in the floating-point coprocessor.

When possible, exponential, logarithm and power calculi must be avoided. It is well known that multiplications are quite faster than more complex mathematical functions (about 10 times). Use of pointers and handles are preferable for data storage allowing fast data transfers and dynamic memory allocation. One should note that adaptive time-step method does not need additional calculations but just a calculation of a maximum. One of the important problems is the discharge rate : to ensure the mass discharge is a multiple of the thin layer mass, the discharge cycle is approximated. This approximation has been verified to be correct. The model has been implemented as a commercial software, DRYER 2000, on APPLE MACINTOSH micro-computers known to have the best human interface (the most intuitive) by the time we began this work. The POWERMAC and WINDOWS versions are in progress. The software has been written in PASCAL with THINK PASCAL with special emphasis on the operator interface (figure 6). First of all, due to the adaptive time-step method the program is numerically robust and always converges. Secondly, it is easy to enter any dryer configuration with any air recirculation scheme (see figure 6). A dryer is considered as a combination of deep beds of three kinds : drying, cooling or tempering. The only constraint is that they must have the same section. Air flow can be whatever we need : up to ten air mixing blocks can be used to represent all the sophisticated circuits we can imagine. Closed loops are possible for the air flow.
Stage #2

FIGURE 6 Ergonomic aspects of computer programming.

The user can ask the software to find the effective grain flowrate in order to obtain desired output grain moisture content. This implies an iterative search of the flowrate until output moisture content equals the desired one. Up to eight simulations can be calculated in parallel. Cooperative multitasking allows the user to continue his work in an other software (a text editor for example) while being notified if a simulation terminates. On a QUADRA 700 (with a MOTOROLA 68040 microprocessor), simulation ends after a time of between 5 minutes to one hour. DRYER 2000 is commercialized by French ITCF institute in two languages : French and English. the major French dryer constructors have bought the system. The software can generate all grain and air characteristics for each thin layer in the dryer with some special results : the variance of moisture distribution inside the kernels. It permits the evaluation of tempering zone efficiency.

RESULTS There are three levels of results : -global output grain quality, temperature and moisture content ; energy consumption and volumetric efficiency of the dryer. -intermediate characteristics of air and grain at the output of each deep bed. -local characteristics of air and grain at each thin layer. Clearly, global results are the most important but intermediate and local ones allow a precise study of the possibilities for further improvements (Courtois, 1991) : -local air saturation inside a deep bed (before the exit) : this effectively means that part of the dryer volume is unused. -no saturation of the exhaust air: which implies that part of the drying ability of the air is lost. -no gain of variance in moisture distribution inside the grain : i.e. tempering zones have no positive effect. One should remember that resting zones above 50C have negative effects on grain quality. When comparing simulations and industrial results, we must be prudent with industrial measures especially concerning the estimation of the product moisture content. It is important to note that while the computer asks for one (constant) measure of input moisture content, this value varies considerably in reality. TABLE 2 Simulated vs industrial results (corn dried approximately from 35% to 15% wet basis) Unpublished data collected by the ITCF institute Relative error of prediction on : for : ITCF dryer : 90C-90C-10C ROULIN dryer : 135C-110C-10C FAO dryer : 140C-100C-10C SATIG dryer : 140C-110C-10C Grain Flowrate -6.1% -3.2% -8.2% +14% Grain Quality +4.1% +5.6% +2.2% -15.5%

About a hundred comparisons were made before the selling of the software. Table 2 shows a sample of typical comparisons between

industrial and simulated results. Relative errors in quality or mass flowrate prediction is under 10% for more than 90% of the comparisons. Errors above 10% concern always dryers where measures of air temperature and flowrate are uncertain. Experiment uncertainties are difficult to evaluate due to the variety of sensors and measurement procedures involved. The robustness of this model has been proven when designing a control algorithm purely by simulation : control parameters were corrected by less than 10% after the first experimentation. A patent has been registered in France : all the conception is based on this software. First experiments were in good agreement with the previous simulations. CONCLUSION A new dynamic model of corn drying based on compartmental structure and quality prediction was built up from thin layer to industrial scale. The main advantages of this model are : -fast calculation (compared to a diffusive model) -ability to predict wet-milling degradation -large potentialities to predict unsteady state behaviour of the grain which implies... -compatibility with complex air recirculation schemes, cooling and tempering stages. -large grain flowrates (grain drying conditions changing very often) -ability to be a simulator to test control strategies -availability as a user-friendly software ready-to-use. Assumptions concerning the plug-type airflow and the small temperature gradient inside the grains did not involve too much problems considering the significant gain in calculation time. We focused mainly on numerical resolution of the equations and on the ergonomics of the software. Average predictive error on quality and mass flowrate has been observed to stay under 10% for more than 90% of the comparisons we made. It is acceptable considering measurement uncertainties and natural dispersion.

SYMBOLS
Latin Letters a grain surface area / volume ratio (m-1) B1 mass exchange coefficient between compartment #1 and #2 (kg.s-1.m-3) B2 mass exchange coefficient between compartment #2 and #3 (kg.s-1.m-3) cp specific heat at constant pressure (J.kg-1.C-1) Dg discharge rate (kg.s-1) Ea Energy of activation in Arrhenius law (J.mol-1) KQ quality coefficient (s-1) Lv latent heat of vaporisation (J.kg-1) n order of the quality reaction* t time (s) T temperature (C) Va air velocity (m.s-1) X grain moisture content (dry basis) * Y air moisture content (dry basis) * z abscissa along air flow axis (m) Greek Letters heat transfer coefficient (J.m-2.s-1.K-1) mass transfer coefficient (kg.Pa-1.m-2.s-1) p bed porosity * m mass flux between air and grain (kg.m-2.s-1) h heat flux between air and grain (W.m-2) density of dry product (kg.m-3) i volume ratio of compartment #i * * No dimension Subscripts 0 or initial central compartment 1 medium compartment 2 peripheral compartment 3 air a cal calculated (model) exp experimental final f grain g vsat vapour at saturation vapour v water w

REFERENCES

Bakker Arkema, F.W., Lerew, L.E., DeBoer, S.F., Roth, M.G., 1974, Grain drying simulation, research report 214, Michigan State University, Agricultural Experimental Station, East Lansing, MI, USA. Brooker, D.B., Bakker-Arkema, F.W., Hall, C.W., 1992, Drying and Storage of Grains and Oilseeds, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York. Bruce, D.M., 1984, A simulation of multiple-bed, concurrent-flow and counter-flow grain driers, J. agric. Engng Res, 30(4), 373-380. Cherruault, Y., 1986, Mathematical Modelling in Biomedicine Optimal Control of Biomedical Systems. D. Reidel Publishing Company, 258 p. Courtois, F., 1991, Amlioration de la Qualit du Mas par la Modlisation Dynamique du Schage, PhD thesis, ENSIA, France, 100 p. Courtois, F., Lebert, A., Duquenoy, A., Lasseran, J.C., Bimbenet, J.J., 1991. Modelling of Drying to Improve Processing Quality of Maize, Drying Technology, 9(4), 927-945. Courtois, F., Lebert, A., Lasseran, J.C., Bimbenet, J.J., 1992. Simulation of industrial dryers : solving numerical and computer problems, Drying'92, Ed. A.S. Mujumdar, Elsevier, 1268-1277. Fohr, J.P., Arnaud, G., Ali Mohamed, A., Ben Moussa, H., 1988, Validity of Drying Kinetics, Sixth International Drying Symposium IDS'88, Versailles, 151. Haghigi, K., Segerlind, L.J., 1988, Failure of biomaterials subjected to temperature and moisture gradients using finite element method : II Stress analysis of an isotropic sphere during drying, Transactions of the ASAE, 31(2), 629-637. Karel, M., Saguy, I., Mishkin, M.A., 1987, Advances in optimisation of food dehydration with respect to quality retention, Fourth International Drying Symposium, Kyoto, Japon, 295-298. Laguerre, J.C., Lebert, A.,Trystram, G., Bimbenet, J.J., 1989, Drying curves of foodstuffs under variable conditions : modelling and

interpretation, In : Engineering And Food, 2, Spiess and Shubert Ed., Elsevier, 558-568. Litchfield, J.C., Okos, M.R., 1988, Prediction of corn kernel stress and breakage induced by drying, tempering and cooling, Transactions of the ASAE, 31(2), 585-594. Nellist, M.E., Bruce, D.M., 1987, Drying and Cereal Quality, Cereal Quality, 15, 439-455. Sokhansanj, S., Kameoka, T., Singh, D.,1985, Quality assessment in grain drying simulation - A stochastic approach, in Physical properties of agricultural materials and their influence on design and performance of agricultural machines and technologies, Sbornik faculty, Prague, Czechoslovakia. Sebastian, P., 1992, Analyse de rseaux de transferts : application l'expertise de schoirs, PhD Thesis, Bordeaux University, France, 175 p. Toyoda, K., 1988, Study on Intermittent Drying of Rough Rice in a Recirculation Dryer, Sixth International Drying Symposium IDS'88, Versailles, 171.