Design and Performance Evaluation of an Air Flow Meter for Drying Cassava Chips

Abstract

Drying is an important unit operation in the processing of fresh cassava tubers into cassava chips. An air flow meter is a device that measure airflow. Airflow meter and direction sensing are importance in many fields, including the monitoring on vehicle engine performance. The airflow meter for cassava chips measures how much air is flowing through the cassava chips. There are many reasons and ways to measure airflow, this technical method of explores the use of air flow meter to measure cassava chips in order to ensure the proper airflow to dry the cassava chip, which will improve the value chain of cassava processing. This research work focused on the design and performance evaluation of an airflow meter for drying cassava chips. The air flow meter was made from locally available materials and it consists of a blower, pressure, sensor, temperature sensor, heating chamber which was used to carry out several tests on cassava chips. From the test conducted during drying operation, at a temperature of 900c for a 372g of cassava chips, it takes a period of 180 minutes (3hours) with an airflow of 133m3/sec to dry it to a safe moisture content. At temperature 1100c for 617g of cassava chips, it takes a period of 240 minutes (4hours) with an airflow of 209m3/sec to dry it to safe moisture content. The efficiencies of the drying mechanism and measuring airflow device are 70% and 65% respectively. The sample dried with airflow meter still retain their white colours, thus indicating no mould growth.