A continuous powder dryer of inclined metal sheets was designed and simulated using computational fluid dynamics. This dryer suggests an alternative for the drying of lactose in the pharmaceutical and food industry where there are high control requirements for moisture content. The dryer was designed to process the granular material over a wide range of particle sizes. The dryer dimensions are calculated by the particle entrainment theory to obtain the terminal particle velocity. CFD simulations were performed by feeding the air in the front and the back of the metal sheets with inclination angles of 40°, 50°, and 60° angles.The results of these simulations indicate that the velocity profiles with the best contact air-solid were obtained using the configuration of 60° inclination angle.

It was designed a continuous powder dryer of inclined metal sheets that is an alternative for the drying of lactose in the pharmaceutical and food industry where there are high control requirements for moisture content. However, the dryer can be used to dry any type of wet solid. The dryer was designed to process the granular material over a wide range of particle sizes. The air velocity used in the experiments were lower terminal particle velocity to avoid particle drag. The experiments were compared with CFD simulations. The results of the simulations helped to explain the results obtained experimentally. The best contact air-solid were obtained using the configuration of 60° inclination angle. With this arrangement, the air reduces the loss of energy caused by the sheet friction maintaining its high velocity.