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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Albany, California » Western Regional Research Center » Healthy Processed Foods Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #317825
Research Project: New Sustainable Processing Technologies to Produce Healthy, Value-Added Foods from Specialty Crops

Location: Healthy Processed Foods Research

Title: Drying characteristics and modeling of yam slices under different relative humidity conditions

Author
item JU, HAO-YU - China Agricultural University
item EL-MASHAD, HAMED - University Of California
item FANG, XIAO-MING - China Agricultural University
item Pan, Zhongli
item XIAO, HONG-WEI - China Agricultural University
item LIU, YAN-HONG - China Agricultural University
item RUI, LIU - China Agricultural University

Submitted to: Drying Technology: An International Journal
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/13/2015
Publication Date: 7/27/2015
Citation: Ju, H., El-Mashad, H.M., Fang, X., Pan, Z., Xiao, H., Liu, Y., Rui, L. 2015. Drying characteristics and modeling of yam slices under different relative humidity conditions. Drying Technology: An International Journal. doi: 10.1080/07373937.2015.1052082.

Interpretive Summary: This study showed that drying rates under different step-down RH conditions were higher than that of the continuous dehumidification experiment. High RH in the initial stage of drying could enhance the internal temperature of product and increase the drying rates. Step-down RH drying conditions achieved not only high drying rates, but also the most acceptable color in yam slices. The estimated effective moisture diffusivity ranged from 1.1133×10-10 to 8.8144×10-9 m2406 /s. In addition, model validation indicated that the Bi-Di correlation could precisely describe the drying kinetics of yam slices under different step-down RH levels. The present findings contributed to a better understanding of the effect of relative humidity on drying characteristics, which may contribute to new control strategies of drying process based on RH, and the developed Bi-Di correlation provided new method to determine the moisture effective diffusivity.

Technical Abstract: The drying characteristics of yam slices under different 23 constant relative humidity (RH) and step-down RH levels were studied. A mass transfer model was developed based on Bi-Di correlations containing a drying coefficient and a lag factor to describe the drying process. It was validated using experimental data. Results showed that the drying air with constant RH levels of 20%, 30%, and 40%, temperature of 60 o27 C and air velocity of 1.5 m/s had insignificant effect on drying time. This phenomenon was likely attributed to the fact that higher RH lead to rapidly increment of sample’s temperature. Afterwards, higher sample’s temperature could provide an additional driving force to water diffusion and thereby promoted the moisture movement which could minimize the negative effect of lower drying rate in the initial drying stage. Applying air with 40% RH for 15 min in the initial stage achieved the desired color and reduced the drying time by 25% compared to the drying time under continuous dehumidification from an initial RH of 40%. Using the developed Bi-Di correlation, the estimated Biot number, effective moisture diffusivity and mass transfer coefficient ranged from 0.1024 to 0.1182, from 1.1133×10-10 to 8.8144×10-9 m236 /s and from 1.8992×10-9 to 1.7364×10-7 37 m/s, respectively. A rather high correlation coefficient of determination (R2 38 ranged from 0.9871 to 0.9971) was determined between the experimental and predicted moisture contents. The present findings contributed to a better understanding of the effect of relative humidity on drying characteristics. The developed Bi-Di correlation provided a new method to determine the effective diffusivity of moisture in drying.