The flow of a fluid through a porous medium occurs during the aeration and drying stages of a mass of grains, used for the product quality conservation. In this work, using the finite element technique, the variation of the static pressure in a bed of rapeseed Iciola-41 (Brassica napus L. var. olifera) submitted to different airflows was modeled. Through an optimization process, the permeability of the bed to the different airflows was also determined. The results of the finite element analysis, when compared with those obtained from some classical models, presented the best performance. The relative error using the finite element technique varied in the range 0.7 - 24.3% while the relative error for all simulations was approximately equal to 5.3%.
pressure drop; airflow; finite-elements
