This work aimed to study the water transfer in ceramic plates that can be used as coatings masonry by a liquid diffusion model, as well as to present an optimization algorithm based on the inverse method. The presented algorithm was coupled to the analytical solution of the diffusion equation, enabling to determine the process parameters from the experimental data of drying the plates. The boundary condition employed was of the third kind and the geometry considered was a parallelepiped. Once the process parameters were determined, the drying kinetics of ceramic plates was simulated for each temperature. The ceramic plates were molded with red clay, which is also used in making bricks and tiles. Samples of the product with initial moisture content (dry basis) of 0.110 kg were placed into a kiln at 50.0, 60.0, 70.0 and 90.0 ºC and the data of the drying kinetics were obtained. The analysis of the obtained results (statistical indicators and graphics) makes it possible to affirm that the diffusive model adequately describe the drying kinetics. The values obtained for the convective mass transfer coefficient and for the effective water diffusivity were consistent with values reported.
convective mass transfer coefficient; effective mass diffusivity; ceramic plates; optimization
