Mathematical Modeling of Heat and Mass Transfer during Convective Dehydration of an Anisotropic Cylindrical Foodstuff

Abstract

Two-dimensional, unsteady-state mass transfer was studied for air drying of an anisotropic finite cylindrical body. A mathematical model was developed for predicting the temperature of the drying sample at any time and moisture in any position in the drying sample at any time. The anisotropic nature of the drying material was considered in the mathematical model by taking into account the different moisture diffusivities in the axial and radial directions. A cut fresh green bean was used as an anisotropic material and a pilot-scaled dryer was set up to investigate the drying behavior of this foodstuff. Several length-to-diameter ratios of fresh green beans were considered and the mathematical model was validated by comparison of the predicted values of average moisture content with the experimental data. The model was used to predict the moisture distributions inside the drying samples. Different moisture content distributions in the axial and radial directions during drying confirms the anisotropic nature of cut green bean samples. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/htj). DOI 10.1002/htj.21119