An experimental study and mathematical modeling of solar drying of moisture content of the mint, apricot, and green pepper

Abstract

ABSTRACT Our study is manifested in the process of solar drying of various mature foods of vegetables and fruits such as apricots, mint, and green peppers in a hot and somewhat dry area in Biskra, one of the cities of Algeria. Our interest is limited to the study of the amount of moisture extracted from each product and using the forced convection with three different mass flow rate to control the speed of solar drying, which helps us to deepen the research and increase the effect of mass flow rate on the amount of water out of the product. We used a set of mathematical models for different researchers, each according to the mathematical relationship used, and we reformulated it by finding the constants for each model, which means that each mass flow corresponds to the constants of the eight models where deliberate, and the product also affects them about the type, size, and the mass. We contributed to this study by creating a mathematical model adapted to the experimental data and we tried it with the dried products. The results were improved and from this we compared the mathematical models of the researchers with our model and they were also very proper. We conclude that the mass flow rate influence onto the coefficients of the establish model this means that the mass flow rate is an important factor. Our model was found as the best model based on statistical parameters of R 2, RMSE, and χ 2. The model is applicable to predict the moisture content of mint, apricot, and green pepper during solar drying.