Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Department

Engineering

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

The clothes dryer is the second highest consumer of electricity among household appliances in the U.S. However, few improvements have been made to the overall design of dryers since the 1970s. For this reason, energy efficiency research in domestic clothes dryers is a promising topic. In order to effectively and accurately research and test efficiency and design of new prototypes of the dryer, a mathematical model of the air-vented, residential dryer was created in the Energy Systems Lab at Western Kentucky University, using the text-based environment of MATLAB. This model was developed and simulated using numerical solver techniques. This model characterizes the multi-physics nature of the drying process, specifically its heat and mass transfer equations. The model does not account for clothes motion. This thesis adapts the model from the MATLAB environment into a new modeling software, Dymola, which is object-oriented and will be used for the future of the lab. The Dymola model is simulated and its results are compared to both the MATLAB model and experimental data. This model provides a foundation not only for further research on the clothes dryer and other appliances but also for modeling and simulation of a myriad of complex, multi-physics systems. The key attributes of Dymola and its comparison to MATLAB are also discussed.

Advisor(s) or Committee Chair

Dr. Farhad Ashrafzadeh

Disciplines

Electro-Mechanical Systems | Industrial Engineering

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