The ceramic industry presents industrial processes with a large consumption of energy and high environmental impact. These industries are developing products of low quality due to inadequate drying and firing processes. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to contribute for the improvement of drying process by presenting a drying experimental study of the samples of clay for red ceramics (hollow and solid bricks) with different dimensions and initial moisture contents. In the drying processes, several air temperatures and air relative humidity were used, and thus several curves of the drying kinetics and volumetric retraction are shown and analyzed. Mathematical equations for predict lost of water and dimension variations during the process were obtained. It was verified that drying process takes place in the falling rate period and shrinkage happens in two distinct periods.
Drying; shrinkage; hollow blocks; ceramic bricks; experimental
