Effects of moisture and particle size on alfalfa’s thermal conductance, diffusivity, and heat capacity

Researching the thermal characteristic parameters of alfalfa is of fundamental importance for accurately measuring heat transfer and distribution during the compression process. Therefore, the thermal characteristic parameters were measured using the transient plane heat source method. Additionally, the study examined the impact of moisture content and particle size on the thermal characteristic parameters of alfalfa. The experimental results indicated that the thermal conductivity of alfalfa increased with higher moisture content, and it decreased with the increase of particle size. Similarly, the specific heat capacity increased with higher water content, while the particle size had little effect on specific heat capacity. The thermal diffusion coefficient initially decreased and then stabilized with higher water content. Moreover, the influence of particle size on thermal diffusion coefficient was not significant. The obtained thermal characteristic parameters are valuable for investigating temperature changes during the densification process of alfalfa.