Process conditions sensitive (PCS) thin-layer mathematical model of hot air convective drying

Abstract

In this work, a model sensitive to changes of process parameters such as temperature, air velocity, air initial relative humidity, and wet material layer thickness has been developed and verified by two different experimental methods. A laboratory convective batch dryer was used to measure drying behavior of 11 types of products at various process conditions to determine the model parameters. An independent solar drying system was used to experimentally verify the model. The model can predict drying kinetics at any point within a defined range of process conditions: model parameters were determined for temperature range of 40–50 °C, air velocity of 0.6–1.2 m/s, initial air relative humidity of 27–45%, and layer thickness of 4–12 mm. However, the model was verified also for extrapolated air velocity and humidity with good agreement between experimental and model data despite the use of a different independent experimental system.

Keywords:

• Convective drying
• drying
• food drying
• mathematical model
• process conditions
• thin layer

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could influence the work reported in this article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the project APVV-19-0170 provided by the Slovak Research and Development Agency and “Support of research activities of Excellence laboratories STU in Bratislava”, Project no. 313021BXZ1, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and Agentúra na Podporu Výskumu a Vývoja.