Assefa, Abebayehu (PhD)Hagos, Berhane2018-07-032023-11-182018-07-032023-11-182004-09http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/12345678/5896An 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.enMechanical Engineering