Abstract

An experimental and numerical study was conducted to investigate the process of potato slices drying. For simulating the moisture transfer in the samples and predict the dehydration curves, a two-dimensional finite element model was developed and programmed in Compaq Visual Fortran, version 6.5. The model solved the Fick?s second law for slab in a shrinkage system to calculate the unsteady two-dimensional moisture transmission in rectangular coordinates (x,y). Moisture diffusivity and moisture transfer coefficient were determined by minimizing the sum squares of residuals between experimental and numerical predicted data. Shrinkage kinetics of the potato slices during dehydration was determined experimentally and found to be a linear function of removed moisture. The determined parameters were used in the mathematical model. The predicted moisture content values were compared to the experimental data and the validation results demonstrated that the dynamic drying curves were predicted by the methodology very well.

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