Modeling of Apple Slices Shrinkage During the Convectional Drying to Use in Simulation of Heat and Moisture Transfer

Simulation of the heat and moisture transfer is one of the effective techniques for modification and optimization in different food drying methods. One of the most important factors to improve the accuracy of the predicted temperature and moisture content profiles in a drying process is the shrinkage or volume reduction of products The aim of this study was mathematical modeling of the shrinkage rate and the moving velocity of product boundary during drying process in order to prediction of slices thicknesses and the distance of inner nods using numerical solution for related function by finite element method. The drying of apple slices was conducted in the air velocity of 0.6, 1.2 and 1.8 m s-1 and the temperature of 50, 60 and 70 ºC. Based on the results, the thickness of the samples reduced from 0.0053 to 0.0014 m. The exponential model showed a better fitness to the results for thickness and boundary moving velocity change in compare to the other studied models. The model coefficients were calculated as a function of drying time, temperature and velocity of hot air. The distance of domain internal nods was predicted as a function of outer boundary velocity and drying time. A good fitness was observed between the experimental and simulation results in sample shrinkage.