Abstract
A simple method for determining concentration (water or solvent content) dependent diffusivity in liquid foods and polymer solutions from the regular regime drying curve was developed on the basis of the power-law diffusion model. The method was first tested to the drying data generated from numerical solutions of the diffusion equation with various types of concentration dependent diffusivities. The present method was found to be very simple yet accurate compared with the previous methods. Then, the drying rates of various sugar solutions experimentally obtained were analyzed on the basis of the present method to determine the moisture content dependent diffusivities.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported in part by Special Coordinate Funds for Promoting Science and Technology from the Science and Technology Agency of the Japanese Government, by a fund from the Iijima Memorial Foundation for the Promotion of Food Science and Technology, and by a Grant-in Aid for scientific research (C2, No. 10650746) from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, Japan.