Influence of load mass, drum speed and load composition on evenness of drying in a heat pump tumble dryer

Gatarić, Pero (author), Širok, Brane (author), Hočevar, Marko (author), Novak, Lovrenc (author)

This work investigates the evenness of fabric drying in a household heat pump tumble dryer. The evenness of drying was defined as the standard deviation of the fraction of water, evaporated from each fabric item. Drying experiments were performed according to the IEC 61121 standard, which was also followed to determine quantities and types of cotton fabric items (towels, pillowcases and sheets) within each load. Regression analysis was performed to develop models for evenness of drying as a function of load mass and drum speed. Similarities between the tumble dryer energy efficiency parameters and the evenness of drying were analyzed. A high level of agreement was determined between responses of energy efficiency, drying time and evenness of drying to changes in drum speed. Effects of load mass were however more complex and were reflected in a non-linear response of evenness of drying to changes in load mass – the best evenness of drying could be obtained at 2 kg load, followed by 6 kg and 4 kg load. Load composition was determined as an important factor affecting the evenness of drying. At larger loads, a sheet or a pillowcase in average contributed more to the un-evenness of drying than a towel. The presence of sheets and probably the ratio of sheets to other item types in the load were determined as the most probable factors that negatively affected the evenness of drying.

• Language: English
• Keywords: heat pump tumble dryers, evenness of drying, regression analysis, energy efficiency
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FS - Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2022
• Number of pages: Str. 2175–2187
• Numbering: Vol. 40, iss. 10
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-141026
• UDC: 621.577:648.336
• ISSN on article: 0737-3937
• DOI: 10.1080/07373937.2021.1928688
• COBISS.SI-ID: 65575939
• Publication date in RUL: 22.09.2022

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Drying technology
• Shortened title: Dry. technol.
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 0737-3937
• COBISS.SI-ID: 5922823

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: sušilniki perila s toplotno črpalko, enakomernost sušenja, regresijska analiza, energijska učinkovitost