Moisture diffusion coefficient estimation in peas drying by means of a modified Hawlader and Uddin method

Abstract

The aim of the present work is to determine the moisture diffusion coefficient in peas applying, in a first step, a methodology previously published in the literature by Uddin et al.[1] for determining constant diffusion coefficients taking in account the volume reduction associated to the drying process. Then, in a second step, refine it by means of an optimization step. The optimization step is justified because the methodology of Uddin et al. is based in a solution of the diffusion equation that is not mathematically valid for the drying-shrinking problem. Keywords: : moisture diffusivity; drying-shrinking; peas drying