The present study has been undertaken to optimize the drying stage in ceramic tile manufacture. Tests were conducted to determine drying kinetics, establishing how air temperature and relative humidity influenced this process. Tests show that surface moisture content does not evolve as might be expected on the basis of the simple assumption that the surface dries immediately and reaches equilibrium moisture content. A non-isothermal model was proposed to model drying curves successfully. The influence of drying temperature, bulk density of the shaped material, and tile thickness on the drying process and the parameters of the model was obtained.
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