Multiphase transport model for freeze-drying of porous media with prefabricated porosity

Based on the hypothesis of the local mass non-equilibrium, a multiphase porous media drying model of heat and mass transfer was developed to verify the effect of porous frozen materials with prefabricated porosity on freeze-drying. Three kinds of adsorption-desorption equilibrium relationships were constructed to express the hygroscopic effect of moist porous media. The model was solved numerically on the commercial software platform of COMSOL Multiphysics based on the finite element method. Results showed that the freeze-drying process can be effectively enhanced with the initially unsaturated material. Excellent agreements were achieved between model simulative results and experimental data using the three kinds of the proposed adsorption-desorption equilibrium relationships. The different relationships can be unified into a Taylor polynomial through Taylor extensions of some elementary functions. Heat and mass transfer mechanism was discussed according to temperature, saturation and mass source profiles. The drying rate-controlling factor is mainly heat transfer for the initially unsaturated material. Numerical examination of the ambient temperature effect on the freeze-drying process illustrated that the developed model provided good prediction capacities.