Experimental Analysis of Drying of Agricultural Product
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Date
2004-09
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
An experimental system set up has been developed to investigate the drying rate of the
selected material, the drying air temperature and relative humidity and moisture content
profiles developed with the food materials during forced convective air drying. The
moisture content profile was determined by employing the technique of oven drying
method. Embedded thermocouples were used to sense temperature at different locations,
and the embedded digital relative humidity measuring instruments were used to sense
the relative humidity and recording the values manually at different locations of the
drying chamber. A data logger and a computer front end were implemented for data
acquisition.
Temperature, relative humidity, moisture and drying rate profiles are presented as
function of the drying time. All profiles described the drying phenomena inside each
trays of the drying chamber. The close relations of overall drying rate and profiles of
moisture content, drying air temperature and relative humidity are discussed. Finally
correlations are formulated from the experimental data to relate the drying parameters;
drying air temperature, relative humidity, velocity, initial moisture content of material
to be dried and drying time that predict the moisture content on wet basis.
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Mechanical Engineering