Drying Kinetics and Modelling of Mass Transfer in Thin Layer Convective Drying of Pineapple
Ravula Sudharshan Reddy *
Department of Agricultural Processing and Food Engineering, CAE, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU), Bapatla, India
Parabhaker Reddy Ravula
Department of Chemical Engineering, Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies (RGUKT), Basar, India
Divyasree Arepally
Department of Agricultural and Food Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, West Bengal-721 302, India
Surender Reddy Munagala
Department of Food Technology, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India
Sheshasayana Golla
Department of Agricultural Processing and Food Engineering, CAE, Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU), Bapatla, India
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The aim of the investigation was to study the drying characteristics of pineapple at different temperatures of 55, 60, 65, 70 and 75°C with 1.5 m/s constant air velocity. In the present study, the best drying model was selected to describe the drying behaviour, and to develop the moisture profile using COMSOL. Based on the best criteria, Verma et al. was chosen as the best fit to the experimental data. The predicted moisture ratio values obtained from COMSOL simulation and Verma et al. were good agreement with the experimental data.
Keywords: Drying, mass transfer, moisture profile, mathematical modelling