APPLICATION OF CORRELATION BETWEEN BIOT AND DINCER NUMBERS FOR DETERMINING MOISTURE TRANSFER PARAMETERS DURING THE AIR DRYING OF COROBA SLICES

ABSTRACT The moisture mass transfer parameters characterizing the air drying of coroba slices were determined using the correlation between Biot and Dincet numbers. The air drying was carried out at temperatures of 71, 82 and 93C and velocities of 0.82, 1.00 and 1.18 m/s. Experimental moisture content data for coroba slices were collected. The drying coefficient and lag factor were calculated from the experimental data and were incorporated into the correlation. The moisture diffusion coefficient, Biot number and mass transfer coefficient ranged between 1.147 × 10−12–3.740 × 10−12 m2/s, 0.097–0.114 and 0.903 × 10−4–1.729 × 10−4 m/s, respectively. The predicted dimensionless moisture content profiles showed adequate agreement with the experimental observations, with the mean relative error between 0.98 and 4.61%. PRACTICAL APPLICATION As drying is an energy-intensive operation, it has become the prime concern of the researchers to optimize process conditions that lead to energy savings. Moisture transfer parameters are important transport properties needed for accurate modeling in food drying applications. Therefore, accurate determination of these parameters for the drying operation is essential. There is a large amount of studies available in the literature to determine and calculate these parameters for the products subjected to drying. But limited studies have been carried out to determine these parameters using the drying process parameters in terms of lag factor and drying coefficient as first introduced by Dincer and Dost.