Simulation of temperature and moisture changes during storage of woody biomass owing to weather variability

The objective of this study is to describe moisture content and temperature profile in the woody biomass pile by a two dimensional mathematical model. Woody biomass in the form of wood chips and bundles was stored for a period of one year. Heat and moisture transfer model for drying processes was solved by finite element method using MATLAB programming. The simulation was performed using the recorded climate conditions during the experiment and constant drying air conditions. The temperature change inside the bundles shows the same trend and effect with ambient air temperature, however, in case of wood chips shows lesser effect at various ambient air temperature. Uniformly declined moisture content was observed inside the covered wood chips pile during the storage period. The proposed two dimensional model is in close agreement with experimental data to describe the moisture and temperature profile of the pile wood chips and bundles. However, as the wood chips pile height increases more than 3 m temperature development inside the pile could be rapid and the effect of chemical reaction in the wood chips pile has to be included for better accuracy of prediction. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.