Abolfazl Barati - Chemical Engineering Group, Faculty of Engineering, Arak University, I. R. Iran
Sedigheh Khaleghi - Chemical Engineering Group, Faculty of Engineering, Arak University, I. R. Iran
Meisam Ghareghani - Chemical Engineering Group, Faculty of Engineering, Arak University, I. R. Iran
Hamid Reza Norouzi - Chemical Engineering Group, Faculty of Engineering, Arak University, I. R. Iran

Removal of moisture is the longest stage in the gelcasting process due to the slow transport of liquid through the porous solid medium and can become troublesome in a manufacturing operation. In the pervious work of this group, gelcast green parts have been brought in contact with poly (ethylene glycol) with average molecular weight of 1000 as liquid desiccant with the purpose of withdrawing solvent in a reasonable period of time. Also the effects of factors such as solid loading, concentration of desiccant and type of solvent (aqueous or nonaqueous) on the drying rate were studied. In this paper, the effect of molecular weight of PEG on the drying rate of gelcast ceramic parts with different shape (cylinder, sphere) and various effective thicknesses was investigated. The results indicated that higher average molecular weight of PEG increased the drying rate.

Drying, Gelcasting, PEG, Molecular weight, Geometry