Journal of Food Engineering 64 (2004) 97102 www.elsevier.

com/locate/jfoodeng

Inuence of airow velocity on kinetics of convection apple drying

D. Veli c *, M. Planini c, S. Tomas, M. Bili c
Department of Process Engineering, Faculty of Food Technology, University J.J. Strossmayer of Osijek, F. Kuhaca 18, P.O. Box 709, 31000 Osijek, Croatia Received 30 May 2003; accepted 13 September 2003

Abstract The aim of this experiment was to investigate airow velocity inuence (0.64, 1.00, 1.50, 2.00, 2.50 and 2.75 m s1 ) on the kinetics of convection drying of Jonagold apple, heat transfer and average eective diusion coecients. Drying was conducted in a convection tray drier at drying temperature of 60 C using rectangle-shaped (20 20 5 mm) apple samples. Temperature changes of dried samples, as well as relative humidity and temperature of drying air were measured during the drying process. Rehydratation ratio was used as a parameter for the dried sample quality. Kinetic equations were estimated by using an exponential mathematical model. The results of calculations corresponded well with experimental data. Two well-dened falling rate periods and a very short constant rate period at lower air velocities were observed. With an increase of the airow velocity an increase of heat transfer coecient and eective diusion coecient was found. During rehydratation, about 72% of water removed by the drying process was returned. 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Airow velocity; Convection apple drying; Exponential drying model; Eective diusion coecient; Heat transfer coecient

Apple is an important raw material for many food products and apple plantations are cultivated all over the world in many countries. Thus, it is very important to dene the conditions under which the characteristics of fresh apples can be preserved and to dene optimal parameters for their storage and reuse. Drying is a frequently and used procedure for food preservation. Convection drying as well as other techniques for drying are used in order to preserve the original characteristics of apples. Dried apples can be consumed directly or treated as a secondary raw material. High temperatures and long drying times required to remove the water from the fruit material in convection air drying may cause serious damage in avour, colour, nutrients and can reduce the bulk density and rehydratation capacity of the dried product (Lin, Durance, & Scaman, 1998). There is a growing interest in the food industry in the development of economical methods for food

production with high organoleptic and nutritional value. The purpose of this study was to study convection drying of apple in laboratory conditions and to investigate the inuence of airow velocities on drying kinetics, heat transfer coecient and eective diusion coecient.

1. Materials and methods 1.1. Drying equipment Drying was performed in a pilot plant tray dryer (UOP 8 Tray Dryer, Armeld, UK). The dryer operates on the thermogravimetric principle. The dryer (Fig. 1) is equipped with controllers for controlling the temperature and airow velocity. Air was drawn into the duct through a diuser by a motor driven axial ow fan impeller. In the tunnel of the dryer there were carriers for trays with samples, which were connected to a balance. The balance was placed outside the dryer and continuously determined and displayed the sample weight. A digital anemometer at the end of the tunnel measured airow velocity.

Corresponding author. Tel.: +385-31-224-352; fax: +385-31-207115. E-mail address: darko.velic@ptfos.hr (D. Veli c). 0260-8774/$ - see front matter 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2003.09.016

98

D. Veli c et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 64 (2004) 97102

Nomenclature a, K c CP h k, n L m Nu Pr Re t T X X0 parameters in model (8) specic heat (J kg1 K1 ) critical point heat transfer coecient (W m2 K1 ) parameters in model (2) length (m) sample thickness (m) weight (kg) Nusselt number Prandtl number Reynolds number drying time (min) temperature (K) 1 moisture (kgw kg db ) dimensionless moisture dX 0 =dt v k l # q drying rate (min1 ) air velocity (m s1 ) heat conductivity (W m1 K1 ) dynamic viscosity of air (Pa s) temperature (C) density of air (kg m3 )

Subscripts db dry basis w water 0 initial a air e equilibrium f lm s surface

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the convection drying equipment (UOP 8 Tray Dryer, Armeld, UK).

1.2. Material Apples (Jonagold) were obtained from a local supermarket and stored at +4 C. After 2-h stabilization at the ambient temperature, apples were hand peeled and cut to the rectangle-shaped slices, dimensions: 20 20 5 mm. 1.3. Drying procedure The dryer was operated at air velocities 0.64, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 2.75 m s1 , with 60 C dry bulb temperature and average relative humidity of 9%. Air owed parallel to the horizontal drying surfaces of the samples. Drying process started when drying conditions were achieved (60 C and constant air velocity). The apple samples on trays were placed into the tunnel of the dryer and the measurement started from this point. During the drying process temperature changes of dried samples were continuously recorded by thermocouples connected to a

PC. Testo 350 probes placed into the drying chamber measured relative humidity and drying air temperature. Sample weight loss was recorded every 5 min during the drying process using a digital balance (with precision of 0.01 g). Dehydration lasted until a moisture content of about 20% (wet base) was achieved. Airow velocity was measured every 5 min with a digital anemometer that was placed at the end of the tunnel. Dried samples were kept in airtight glass jars until the beginning of rehydratation experiments. 1.4. Determination of the total solid/moisture content The moisture content of the dried samples was determined by using a standard laboratory. Small quantities of each sample were dried in a vacuum oven (6 h at of 70 C and 30 mbar pressure). Time dependent moisture content of the samples was calculated from the sample weight and dry basis weight. Weight loss data allowed the moisture content to be calculated such as follows:

D. Veli c et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 64 (2004) 97102

99

X t mw =mdb 1.5. Rehydratation The rehydratation characteristics were used as a quality index of a dried product. Approximately 3 g (0.01 g) of dried samples were placed in a 250 ml laboratory glass (2 parallels for each sample), 150 ml distilled water was added, the glass was covered and heated up to the boiling point within 3 min. The content of the laboratory glass was then cooked for 10 min by mild boiling and cooled. Cooled content was ltered for 5 min under vacuum, and weighed. The rehydratation ratio (R) was used to express ability of the dried material to absorb water (Lewicki, 1998). It was determined by the following equation: Rehydratation ratio% mass of water absorbed during rehydratation 100 mass of water removed during drying 1

1.7. Calculation of the heat transfer coecient Convective heat transfer occurs between a moving uid and a solid surface. This work investigated convective heat transfer for forced convection ow over a at plate. The viscosity of the uid requires that the uid has zero velocity at the plates surface. Because a boundary layer exists, the ow is initially laminar but can proceed to turbulence once the Reynolds number of the ow is suciently high (Pitts & Sissom, 1977). It was assumed that the plate (sample) was maintained at constant temperature (Ts ) and the plate length (L) was suciently short so that turbulent ow was never triggered (Fig. 2). Average heat transfer coecient was calculated using Pohllhausen equation (4) for laminar ow and other correlations (5) and (6) that are given below:
1=2 Nulam 0:664 Relam Pr1=3

valid for Re < 2 105 4 lc k

Nu

hL ; k

Re

Lvq ; l

Pr

1.6. Drying rate curve determination The exponential model successfully describes the drying kinetics of some porous materials, such as clay (Skansi & Tomas, 1995; Tomas, Skansi, & Sokele, 1994), AlNi catalyst (Sander, Tomas, & Skansi, 1998) and food materials (Tomas & Skansi, 1996). The authors also used this model to describe the changes of moisture content and drying rates. The time dependent weight of samples was converted for the given time dependent to moisture content. To avoid some ambiguity in results because of the dierences in initial sample moisture, the sample moisture was expressed as dimensionless moisture ratio (X 0 X t=X0 ). The drying curve for each experiment was obtained by plotting the dimensionless moisture of the sample vs. the drying time. For the approximation of experimental data and calculating drying curves (Eq. (2)) and drying rate curves (Eq. (3)), the simplied model was used, as follows: X t exp
0 0 k tn

All calculations were performed at the average lm temperature (Tf ): Tf Ta Ts K 6 2 where are: Ta air temperature [K], Ts average temperature of sample surface [K]. 1.8. Determination of the eective diusion coecient The simplied method (Zogozsa, Maroulis, & Marinos-Kouris, 1994) was used for determination of the eective diusion coecient. For a thin plate the solution of Ficks law of diusion, with assumptions of moisture migrating only by diusion, negligible shrinking, constant temperature and diusion coecients and long drying times, are given below (Baroni & Hubinger, 1998): ! n1 X X Xe 8 Deff 2n 12 p2 t exp 2 2 4 2 X0 X e n0 2n 1 p 7 where Xe and X0 represent equilibrium and initial moisture contents, and is the slab thickness. The value

2 3

dX k n tn1 X 0 t dt

The parameters k and n were calculated by non-linear regression method (Quasi-Newton) using Statistica 6.0 computer program. The correlation coecient (r2 ) was used as a measure of model adequation. The rst and second critical points were determined as a maximum and point of inexion of the function (dX =dt) (Tomas & Skansi, 1996).

Fig. 2. Convection heat transfer for forced ow over a at plate.

100

D. Veli c et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 64 (2004) 97102

of the equilibrium moisture content is relatively small (low air relative humidity) compared to X or X0 . Thus X Xe =X0 Xe is simplied to X 0 X =X0 (dimensionless moisture ratio) (Doymaz & Pala, 2002). Where sample thickness is small (0.005 m) and drying time is relatively large, only the rst term of Fickans solution series is need, and Eq. (7) becomes: X 0 a expK t 8

where K Deff p2 =42 is represent the slope of X 0 vs. t plotting on the semi-logarithmic diagram.
Fig. 3. Experimental and calculated moisture contents vs. drying time.

2. Results and discussion The results of numerical adoptions of experimental data are summarized in Table 1. The moisture contents (experimental and modelled data) vs. drying time at different airow velocities are shown in Fig. 3. It can be seen that a good agreement between experimental data and chosen mathematical model exists, which is conrmed by high values of correlation coecient (0.99910.9995). Results show that the airow rate had a signicant eect on drying rates of apple. With the increase of the air ows velocity, the time required to achieve certain moisture content decreased. Fig. 4 shows typical drying curves, which are characterised by two falling rate periods with no undoubtedly apparent constant rate period. However, it might be possible to have a very short constant rate period at lower airow velocities (0.64, 1.0 and 1.5 m s1 ) followed after the initial period of increasing drying rate. In this period samples retained almost constant temperature (Fig. 5) and then kept growing. After the rst critical 1 point (in interval from 0.8176 to 0.9186 kgw kg db ), the internal resistance of product increase, resulted in the rst falling rate period. The second falling rate period started after the second critical point (around 0.3 1 kgw kg db according to air velocity). If the slope of tangent to the drying curve (dX =dt) was considered as the

Fig. 4. Drying rate vs. drying time for dierent airow velocities with rst and second critical points.

drying rate of the sample, the results suggested that in the second period drying was faster than in the rst falling rate period. Similar results were obtained during the drying of sweet potato slices (Diamante, 1994). Rehydratation did not show a clear dependence of rehydratation ability of dried apple on airow velocity. During the rehydratation, dried sample absorbed be-

Table 1 Results of numerical analyses [model (2)]. Time, dimensionless moisture and drying rate in the rst and second critical points at dierent airow rate v (m s1 ) k n r2 t (min) X0 dX 0 =dt (min1 ) CP1 CP2 CP1 CP2 CP1 CP2 0.64 0.002917 1.252203 0.999140 29.4 122.5 0.81758 0.30077 0.00701 0.00369 1.0 0.004230 1.225387 0.999309 21.7 99.3 0.83199 0.30607 0.00863 0.00447 1.5 0.005829 1.201714 0.999186 20.2 91.9 0.83170 0.30596 0.00932 0.00483 2.0 0.009298 1.116508 0.999486 8.7 72.1 0.90091 0.33143 0.01204 0.00566 2.5 0.009846 1.110101 0.999516 8.0 69.9 0.90558 0.33314 0.01245 0.00581 2.75 0.012683 1.092722 0.999185 5.7 58.6 0.91865 0.33795 0.01496 0.00683

CP1 rst critical point; CP2 second critical point.

D. Veli c et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 64 (2004) 97102

101

Fig. 5. Temperature of sample vs. drying time for dierent airow velocities.

Fig. 6. Semi-logarithmic dimensionless moisture ratio vs. drying time in the falling rate period for dierent airow velocities.

tween 63.80% and 79.25% of water, which was removed, by drying (Table 2). As the airow velocity increased, the heat transfer coecient for drying apples also increased almost proportionally (Table 2; Fig. 7). The semi-logarithmic dimensionless moisture vs. drying time plot for falling rate period at dierent air velocities is shown in Fig. 6. Two well-dened falling rate periods are observed, each corresponding to an approximately constant slope from which the eective diusion coecients are calculated. With increasing the airow rate, Deff increases too in the both periods. For the examined airow rate, the value of the average eective diusion coecient in the rst falling rate period ranged from 1.7 109 to 3.0 109 m2 s1 (Table 2). That accords with the literature data for food products such as: vegetable wastes (Lopez, Iguaz, Esnoz, & Virseda, 2000), carrot and potatoes (Mulet, 1994), apple cubes (Simal, Dey a, Frau, & , 1997) and apple tissues (Feng, Tang, & DixonRosselo Werren, 2000). Whereas, in the second falling rate period average Deff was around 1.6 times greater than in the rst period, and it ranged from 2.9 109 to 4.4 109 m2 s1 . This is corresponds with conclusions that the rate of diusion is proportional to the sample temperature (Diamante, 1994), which in this case depends on the airow velocities and heat transfer coecient (Fig. 7), and that the value of Deff increases in time (Simal, Rossello, Berna, & Mulet, 1994).

Fig. 7. The eect of airow velocity on the heat transfer coecient and eective diusion coecients.

3. Conclusion The drying kinetics of Jonagold apple, average heat transfer coecient and average eective diusion coefcient at airow rate: 0.64, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 2.75 m s1 were obtained by a thermogravimetric method. As can be observed, by using the exponential model it is possible to accurately simulate the drying kinetics of apple at dierent air velocities. An increase of airow velocity resulted in increase of moisture removal rate. Two well-dened falling rate periods with dierent drying rates and eective diusion coecients were observed at all examined air rate.

Table 2 Rehydratation ratio, heat transfer coecient and eective diusion coecient for drying apple at dierent airow ratio v (m s1 ) R (%) h (W m2 K1 ) Deff ;1 (m2 s1 ) Deff ;2 (m2 s1 ) 0.64 79.15 21.43 1.70 109 2.91 109 1.0 63.80 26.73 2.06 109 3.37 109 1.5 72.20 32.72 2.26 109 3.61 109 2.0 79.25 37.87 2.56 109 3.72 109 2.5 72.00 42.28 2.64 109 3.62 109 2.75 75.95 44.30 3.02 109 4.45 109

Deff ;1 eective diusion coecient in the rst falling rate period; Deff ;2 eective diusion coecient in the second falling rate period.

102

D. Veli c et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 64 (2004) 97102 Lin, T. M., Durance, T. D., & Scaman, C. H. (1998). Characterization of vacuum microwave air and freeze dried carrot slices. Food Research International, 4, 111117. Lopez, A., Iguaz, A., Esnoz, A., & Virseda, P. (2000). Thin-layer drying behaviour of vegetable wastes from wholesale market. Drying Technology, 18(4&5), 9951006. Mulet, A. (1994). Drying modelling and water diusivity in carrota and potatoes. Journal of Food Engineering, 22, 329348. Pitts, D. R., & Sissom, L. E. (1977). Schaums outline of theory and problems of heat transfer (pp. 614638). New York: McGraw-Hill Inc. Sander, A., Tomas, S., & Skansi, D. (1998). The inuence of air temperature on eective diusion coecient of moisture in the falling rate period. Drying Technology, 16(7), 14871499.  , C. (1997). Simple modelling Simal, S., Dey a, E., Frau, M., & Rosselo of air drying curves of fresh and osmotically pre-dehydrated apple cubes. Journal of Food Engineering, 33, 139150. Simal, S., Rossello, C., Berna, A., & Mulet, A. (1994). Heat and mass transfer model for potato drying. Chemical Engineering Science, 22(49), 37393744. Skansi, D., & Tomas, S. (1995). Microwave drying kinetics of a clayplate. Ceramics International, 21, 207211. Tomas, S., & Skansi, D. (1996). Numerical interpretation of drying curve of food products. Journal of Chemical Engineering of Japan, 29(2), 367370. Tomas, S., Skansi, D., & Sokele, M. (1994). Convection drying of porous material. Cheramics International, 20, 916. Zogozsa, N. P., Maroulis, Z. B., & Marinos-Kouris, D. (1994). Moisture diusivity methods of experimental determination a review. Drying Technology, 12(3), 483515.

The average Deff increased with airow rate, and ranged form 1.7 109 to 3.0 109 m2 s1 for the rst and from 2.9 109 to 4.4 109 m2 s1 for the second falling rate period. With the increase of the airow velocity, heat transfer coecient increased too, and it ranged between 21.4 and 44.3 W m2 K1 . During rehydratation of dried apples, 63.8079.25% of water removed by the drying process was returned.

References
Baroni, A. F., & Hubinger, M. D. (1998). Drying of onion: eects of pretretmant on moisture transport. Drying Technology, 16(9&10), 20832094. Diamante, L. M. (1994). Drying characteristics of sweet potato slices. In Proceedings of the international conference of preservation and security (pp. 187199). Doymaz, I., & Pala, M. (2002). The eects of dipping pretreatments on air-drying rates of the seedless grapes. Journal of Food Engineering, 52(4), 413417. Feng, H., Tang, J., & Dixon-Werren, S. J. (2000). Determination of moisture diusivity of red delicious apple tissues by thermogravimetric analysis. Drying Technology, 18(6), 11831199. Lewicki, P. P. (1998). Some remarks on rehydration of dried foods. Journal of Food Engineering, 36, 8187.