Mathematical Modelling of Drying Kinetics in the Natural Solar Drying of Mango

Abstract

There are several drying kinetic models. Some of them are theoretical, semi-theoretical or empirical. Among them, several are based on the Fick’s second law. Those models generally use some constant coefficients for the whole drying process. The present model uses the water speed of transfer. It is correlated to the drying rate, to the drying time and to the modelling parameters. Finally, the drying rate and the moisture content are expressed as functions of those parameters and the drying time. The modelling parameters, which are time dependent, are calculated from the experimental drying data. In a previous work, our mathematical model was applied in the modelling of natural solar drying of plantain banana. In the present work, the model is applied in the modelling of natural solar drying of mango. The drying rate is estimated with a high accuracy, as the relative errors between experiment and theory are in the range 0.03 % - 7.7 %. By way of comparison, the modelling performed using the characteristic drying curve yields relative errors varying between 11.37 % and 84.47 %. In the same way, the moisture content is estimated by our model with a high accuracy, as the relative errors lie in the range 0.003 % - 1.1 %. The modelling of the moisture content carried out using the Henderson and Pabis model yields an estimate with relative errors varying between 1.8 % and 5.26 %.