Versatile and robust equipment for the study of convective heat transfer and drying of porous media can be easily and cheaply constructed using commonly available heating and cooling ducting. For the drying experiment, inexpensive USB temperature/humidity sensors and data acquisition boards make it possible to collect accurate data not only in the dryer, but also at various depths in an insulated tray containing porous solids so as to perform an in-depth analysis of the drying process. Electronic balances with RS-232 interfaces are also now available at reasonable prices and are easily interfaced to give mass data. Using this equipment, remarkably good data can be collected to calculate heat transfer coefficients to a tray, as well as effective diffusivity in the second falling rate regime. This is an excellent experiment for the application of mass and energy balances to a real system. Mass data is differentiated using TableCurve 2-D ®software and yields drying curves that illustrate constant, first falling rate and second falling rate periods. This experiment is easily adapted to an “on-line” format since sensors are interfaced to a PC and the equipment is reliable with few moving parts. Other simple transport experiments using the same apparatus and instrumentation include the study of transient center-line temperatures and heat transfer coefficients to materials of various geometries under various flow conditions. A compact design for this unit will be presented along with sample data and student performance.

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