Mechanical aspect on drying of wet porous media

An aspect of thermomechanics of fluid saturated capillary-porous media concerning the mechanical phenomena accompanying the heat and mass transfer during drying processes is presented. The wet materials tend to shrink during drying and the shrinkage generates internal stresses which may cause fracturing of the dried body. The constitutive relations and the heat and mass rate equations are developed. The forces that produce shrinkage and the mechanisms responsible for transport of heat and moisture are examined. The considerations are based on the thermodynamics of irreversible processes and the continuum mechanics of porous media. The studies are quite general but the final form of the drying model is simplified by the assumptions admissible in practical applications. The example of convective drying of a ceramic cylinder is presented for illustration of the theory.