Please cite this article in press as: Askari, G.R., et al.

, Heat and mass transfer in apple cubes in a microwave-assisted uidized bed drier. Food
Bioprod Process (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fbp.2012.09.007
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Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Food and Bioproducts Processing
j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ f bp
Heat and mass transfer in apple cubes in a
microwave-assisted uidized bed drier
G.R. Askari, Z. Emam-Djomeh

, S.M. Mousavi
Transfer Phenomena Laboratory, Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Technology,
University of Tehran, Karaj 31587-77871, Iran
a b s t r a c t
In the present study, a pilot scale microwave assisted uidized-bed dryer was designed and used to dry apple cubes.
A model was developed to describe heat and mass transfer in apple cubes during drying in a combined microwave-
assisted uidized-bed dryer. A numerical solution based on the nite difference method was used to develop the
model for moisture distribution and temperature variation of samples. The model was validated using experimental
data, including average moisture content, center and surface temperature at various air temperatures and microwave
power densities.
2012 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The Institution of Chemical Engineers.
Keywords: Microwave; Fluidized bed drying; Apple cube; Heat transfer; Mass transfer; Modeling
1. Introduction
Heat and mass transfer infruits and vegetables during convec-
tional drying is a complex process. The essence of all drying
processes is the removal of moisture from a mixture to yield
a solid product. In general, drying is accomplished by ther-
mal techniques, and thus involves the application of heat,
most commonly by convection from a current of air. During
the convective drying of solids, two processes occur simul-
taneously, namely: transfer of energy from the surrounding
environment; and transfer of moisture fromwithin the solid.
Therefore, this unit operation may be regarded as a simul-
taneous heat and mass transfer process. Moreover, the rate
at which drying is accomplished is governed by the relative
magnitude of the two processes (Mujumdar and Menon, 1995).
In comparison with conventional heating, microwaves offer
different heating capacities without requiring a medium as
a vehicle for heat transfer. The basic physical phenomenon
responsible for the heating of food materials at microwave
frequencies is dipole rotation (Schiffmann, 1995). This phe-
nomenon causes a higher loss of water than most solids
because regions with higher water contents within the mate-
rial absorb more microwave energy.
It is generally observed that the pattern of power absorp-
tion in a food, heated in a microwave oven depends on the

Corresponding author. Tel.: +982632248804.

E-mail address: emamj@ut.ac.ir (Z. Emam-Djomeh).
Received6 April 2012; Receivedinrevisedform2 August 2012; Accepted28 September 2012
ovenandloadfactors, thus it couldbe concludedthat the heat-
ing process is directed by heat and mass transfer mechanisms
(Bilbao-Sainz et al., 2006). The application of microwaves
solely, can result in uneven heating of certain products,
depending on their dielectric and thermophysical properties
and inhomogeneous eld distribution. An undesired inhomo-
geneous heating pattern can be prevented by changing the
eld conguration either by varying cavity geometries (e.g.
mode stirrer) or by moving the product (on a conveyor belt
or turntable); this also inuences the elddistribution. (Abbasi
Souraki andMowla, 2008; Regier andSchubert, 2005). However,
problems related to fast temperature rise and its distribution
inside the products must be considered. These limitations can
be overcome by combining microwave radiation with a u-
idizedbed. Regarding highheat andmass transfer coefcients,
uidized bed drying is widely used for chemical, pharmaceu-
tical and food processing (Mhimid et al., 2000; Reyes et al.,
2002). The rst study of a uidized bed dryer combined with
microwaving was presented by Smith in 1970, however a num-
ber of subsequent investigations have described this method
(McMinn et al., 2003; Hatamipour and Mowla, 2002, 2003;
Campanone and Zaritzky, 2005).
Temperature distribution during microwave heating is
governed by the moisture prole, so these must be stud-
ied together. The present study developed a generalized
0960-3085/$ see front matter 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The Institution of Chemical Engineers.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fbp.2012.09.007
Please cite this article in press as: Askari, G.R., et al., Heat and mass transfer in apple cubes in a microwave-assisted uidized bed drier. Food
Bioprod Process (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fbp.2012.09.007
ARTICLE IN PRESS
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2 food and bioproducts processing x x x ( 2 0 1 2 ) xxxxxx
mathematical model to describe moisture and temperature
distribution. Anumerical model bymeans of MATLABprogram
written for this purpose is solved to simulate heat transfer in
foodstuff with cubic geometry in microwave assisted uidized
bed.
2. Theory
The general approach to modeling mass transfer is using the
concept of effective diffusivity (D
eff
) which allows describing
diffusion of moisture by the Ficks second law:
X
t
= D
eff

2
(X) (1)
Eq. (1) can be integrated for different geometries (slab,
cylinder and sphere) and boundaries as well as initial con-
ditions (Crank, 1975). The solution for an innite slab of 2l
thickness and constant diffusivity in terms of average mois-
ture content (X
l
) is given by:
X

i
=
x
i
x
e
x
0
x
e
=
8

n=1
1
(2n 1)
2
exp

_
(2n 1)
2
_

2
D
eff
4 l
2
_
t
_
(2)
For a nite slab (a cube) the geometry corresponds to the
intersection of three innite slabs, with widths of 2x, 2y, and
2z, which yields the following expression (Crank, 1975; Reyes
et al., 2002):
X

i
= X

x
X

y
X

z
=
_
x
x
x
e
x
0
x
e
_

_
x
y
x
e
x
0
x
e
_

_
x
z
x
e
x
0
x
e
_
(3)
For a nite slab with the same geometries (x =y =z =l), Eq.
(3) reduced to:
X

i
= (X

i
)
3
=
_
x
i
x
e
x
0
x
e
_
3
(4)
where X* is the dimensionless moisture content in drying
cube.
Moisture content (

X) of apple cubes can be calculated using

following equation:
X

i
=

X X
e
X
0
X
e

X = X
e
+(X
0
X
e
) X

(5)
where

X is the time dependence moisture content of apple
cubes during drying.
It is quite clear that moisture diffusivity is a function
of the moisture and temperature of samples, therefore to
describe moisture changes a numerical method with vari-
ant moisture diffusivity is necessary (Simal et al., 1997;
Hatamipour and Mowla, 2002). In this case average mois-
ture content (x
i
) of Eq. (4) is replaced by calculated (X)
from one-dimensional numerical solution of Eq. (6) to
determine moisture content of cubic sample (

X) from
Eq. (5).
Moisture diffusion is the main mass transfer mechanism
in the solid phase from the center of a product to the sur-
face followed by convective moisture transfer to the air. Heat
transfer mechanisms include the internal heat generationand
convective heat transfer mechanisms from/to the surface of
drying samples to/from the drying air as well as evaporative
cooling. To describe moisture and temperature proles within
samples, a mathematical model was proposed that consid-
ers mass and energy conservation laws and has the following
assumptions:
1. Uniform initial moisture and temperature distributions
within the drying materials.
2. Heat transfer by conduction and convection only.
3. Temperature and moisture dependency of moisture diffu-
sivity.
4. Moisture transport inside a material occurring in the liquid
phase and evaporation only at the evaporating surface.
5. Diffusion being the governing mass transfer mechanism
inside the material and moisture at the surface being at
equilibriumwith the drying air.
6. Uniformtemperature distribution within the drying mate-
rials. Internal resistance is negligible compared to external
resistance (lumped-heat capacity analysis).
7. Similar hydrodynamic properties and moisture content of
all particles in well mixed uidized bed.
2.1. Mass transfer modeling
Researchers have noted that drying of agro-food products is
commonly done by single phase diffusion and no constant
rate periods are displayed (Crank, 1975; Abbasi Souraki and
Mowla, 2008).
The unsteady state equation of conservation of mass in a
slab (a one direction of Fig. 1) can be described by the following
equation:
X
t
=

y
_
D
eff
X
y
_

(
s
X)
t
=

y
_
D
eff
(
s
X)
y
_
(6)
The following initial and boundary condition are consid-
ered as:
t = 0 0 < y < l, X = X
0
(7)
t > 0 y = l, X = X
e
(8)
t > 0 y = 0,
X
y
= 0 (9)
The physical properties of the apples are summarized in
Table 1.
2.2. Heat transfer modeling
Energy balance in a particle can be written as (Datta, 2001):
d(MCp

T)
dt
= Q
microwave
+Ah(T
a

T) +
dM
dt
(10)
This means that: (rate of temperature rise) =(microwave
heat generation) +(convective heat gain or loss) +(evaporative
heat loss). The following initial conditions are assumed as:
t = 0

X = X
0
and

T = T
0
(11)
The rate of heat generation in a specic point in a sam-
ple depends on its distance from the surface (Lamberts
microwave absorption relationship). The mean diameter of
the apple cubes is smaller than the penetration depth of the
microwaves. Hence, a uniform electric and microwave elds
Please cite this article in press as: Askari, G.R., et al., Heat and mass transfer in apple cubes in a microwave-assisted uidized bed drier. Food
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Fig. 1 Drying sample with boundary conditions.
and a uniform temperature distribution inside the samples
were assumed. An average temperature inside the samples
was also assumed. The convective heat transfer coefcient (h
s
)
can be evaluated by (Ranz and Marshal, 1952):
T T
air
T
0
T
air
= exp
_

_
h
s
A
Cp V
_
t
_
(12)
The specic heat capacity as a functionof moisture content
can be calculated as (Perry and Chilton, 1985):
C
P
(kJ/kg

C) = 1.675 +
_

X

X +1
2.5
_
(13)
2.3. Solution of mathematical model
2.3.1. Discretization of mass transfer equation
The CrankNicolson nite difference method was chosen to
discretize mass transfer equation (6) considering the varia-
tion of D
eff
and
s
with moisture content. This method does
not require a stability condition (Constantinides and Mostou,
2001). Differentiation of Eq. (6) leads to:

s
X
t
+X

s
t
=

y
D
eff

s
X
y
+D
eff

2
X
y
2
(14)
Eq. (14) can be discretized using the following equations:
X
t

i,n+(1/2)
=
X
i,n+1
X
i,n
t
(15)

s
t

i,n+(1/2)
=

s i,n+1

s i,n
t
(16)
X
y

i,n+(1/2)
=
X
i+1,n+1
X
i,n+1
+X
i+1,n
X
i,n
2y
(17)

2
X
y
2

i,n+(1/2)
=
X
i+1,n+1
2X
i,n+1
+X
i1,n+1
+X
i+1,n
2X
i,n
+X
i1,n
2y
2
(18)

s
D
eff

i,n+(1/2)
=
D
eff i+1,n+1

si+1,n+1
D
eff i,n+1

si,n+1
+D
eff i+1,n

si+1,n
D
eff i,n

si,n
2y
2
(19)
X|
i,n+(1/2)
=
X
i,n+1
+X
i,n
2
(20)

s
|
i,n+(1/2)
=

s i,n+1
+
s i,n
2
(21)
D
eff

i,n+(1/2)
=
D
eff i,n+1
+D
eff i,n
2
(22)
where i =node position; n=the time interval, y =space incre-
ment and t =time step such that y =i y and t =nt; n=t,
while (n+1) corresponds to time (t +t).
Substituting Eqs. (15)(22) into Eq. (14) and rearranging on
the basis of proper terms leads to the general equation for the
numerical calculation of a moisture prole as followings:
_

t
8y
2
(D
i,n+1

i,n+1
+D
i,n

i,n+1
+D
i,n+1

i,n
+D
i,n

i,n
)
_
(X
i1
, n +1) +
_
(
i,n+1
) +
t
4y
2
(D
i,n

i,n+1
+D
i,n+1

i,n
+D
i+1,n+1

i+1,n+1
+D
i,n

i,n
+D
i+1,n

i+1,n
)
_
(X
i
, n +1) +
_

t
8y
2
(D
i,n

i,n+1
+D
i,n+1

i,n
+2 D
i+1,n+1

i+1,n+1
D
i,n

i,n+1
+2 D
i+1,n

i+1,n
D
i,n

i,n
)
_
(X
i+1
, n +1) =
_

t
8y
2
(D
i,n+1

i,n+1
+D
i,n

i,n+1
+D
i,n+1

i,n
+D
i,n

i,n
)
_
(X
i1
, n) +
_
(
i,n
) +
t
4y
2
(D
i,n

i,n+1
+D
i,n+1

i,n
+D
i+1,n+1

i+1,n+1
+D
i,n

i,n
+D
i+1,n

i+1,n
)
_
(X
i
, n)
+
_
t
8y
2
(D
i,n

i,n+1
+D
i,n+1

i,n
+2 D
i+1,n+1

i+1,n+1
D
i,n

i,n+1
+2 D
i+1,n

i+1,n
D
i,n

i,n
)
_
(X
i+1
, n) (23)
Please cite this article in press as: Askari, G.R., et al., Heat and mass transfer in apple cubes in a microwave-assisted uidized bed drier. Food
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Table 1 Physical properties of apples used in modeling.
Property Correlation Reference
Density (kg/m
3
) =770+16.18X295.1e
X
Krokida and Maroulis (1999)
Effective diffusivity (m
2
/s) D
eff
= 2.74 10
6
exp
_
24,034.2
R(T+273)
_
Simal et al. (1997)
2.3.2. Discretization of heat transfer equation
The sample mass as a function of average moisture content
can be dened as:
M = M
s
(1 +

X) (24)
where M and M
s
are the mass of drying solid and dried solid
respectively. By substituting M from Eq. (24) and C
p
from Eq.
(13) into Eq. (10), the following equation is obtained:
d

T
dt
+
2.5 M
s
(d

X/dt) +Ah
M
s
(1.675 +2.5

X)


T
=
Q
microwave
+AhT
a
+M
s
(d

X/dt)
M
s
(1.675 +2.5

X)
(25)
Using the subsequent equations,
d

X
dt

n+(1/2)
=

X
n+1

X
n
t
(26)
d

T
dt

n+(1/2)
=

T
n+1

T
n
t
(27)

n+(1/2)
=

T
n+1
+

T
n
2
(28)

n+(1/2)
=

X
n+1

X
n
2
(29)
Eq. (25) can be discretized to Eq. (30) in the following form:

T
n+1
=

T
n

_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
1
1
2
2.5Ms
_
X
n+1
Xn
t
_
+Ah
Ms
_
1.675+2.5
_
X
n+1
+ Xn
2
__
_
_
_
_
1 +
1
2
2.5Ms
_
X
n+1
Xn
t
_
+Ah
Ms
_
1.675+2.5
_
X
n+1
+ Xn
2
__
_
_
+
_
_
Q
microwave
+Ah
t
Ta+Ms
_
X
n+1
Xn
t
_
Ms
_
1.675+2.5
_
X
n+1
+ Xn
2
__
_
_
_
_
1 +
1
2
MsC
W
P

_
X
n+1
Xn
t
_
Ms
_
1.675+2.5
_
X
n+1
+ Xn
2
__
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
t (30)
Eq. (30) is the general correlation for the calculation of tem-
perature variationduring drying. The equationfor the stability
condition of heat transfer determines the minimumvalue for
the time increment as:
t
2M
s
(1.675 +2.5

X)
2.5 M
s
(d

X/dt) +Ah
(31)
3. Materials and methods
3.1. Apples
Golden Delicious apples produced in Karaj, Iran were pur-
chased froma local supermarket and stored at 4

C. Apple was
chosen because the cells of parenchyma tissue are homoge-
nous and structurally less complex. One batch of apples was
used in the experiments, which is usually available for a
limited period of time. Firm apples at the same stage of
maturity with no bruises on the skin were selected for the
dehydration experiments. For all experiments, apples were
washed and cut (10mm10mm10mm) with special cut-
ting tools and immediately immersed in tap water at 20

C. To
avoid undesirable enzymatic reactions and improve structural
properties, apple slices were blanched in hot water (80

C) for
1min.
3.2. Drying equipment
Drying experiments were conducted using a modied domes-
tic microwave oven (900W) as illustrated in Fig. 2. This device
was designed to dry samples while the temperature and veloc-
ity of air and microwave power were controlled.
Microwave power can be adjusted in domestic ovens by
controlling operation time, but this approach does not yield
sufcient power control accuracy. Accordingly, power was
adjusted as directed by the manufacturer (in increments of
150W) andmoreover, atime controller was installedtoachieve
smaller stepwise power changes. Therefore, resulting output
power could be adjusted by increments of 50W.
The drying chamber (1.2kg) consisted of a Pyrex duct of
10cmdiameter and 35cmheight which was positioned inside
the microwave oven. This conguration was necessary to
ensure careful adjustment of air velocity around the samples
and prevent the exposure of moisture to the internal parts
of the microwave oven which could lead to power loss and
electrical hazards.
An external duct made of stainless steel was connected to
an 8kW electric heater to heat the air to the desired drying
temperature which was controlled by a PID temperature con-
troller. Air velocity was controlled by a fan speed controller.
For all experiments, air velocity was maintained at a constant
value of 21m/s inside the cavity. It could be noted that cubes
was uidized at 21m/s air velocity which was higher than val-
ues that reported in similar cases (Reyes et al., 2002; Zielinska
and Markowski, 2007). The higher velocity was necessary due
to lower amount of cubes introduced in uid bed and to elim-
inate the external mass transfer resistance.
Before entering raw materials, the system was run for
15min until temperature stabilized. In each experiment about
90g (100 pieces) of apple cubes were placed in drying chamber.
Drying chamber is positioned on a digital balance with accu-
racy of 0.01g (Fig. 2). Samples weight was measured when
the blowing air was switched off, instead of the less reliable
method of removing the sample from the drying chamber.
The surface and internal temperatures of the samples were
Please cite this article in press as: Askari, G.R., et al., Heat and mass transfer in apple cubes in a microwave-assisted uidized bed drier. Food
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Fig. 2 Microwave assisted hot-air dryer.
measured using a thermocouple (Ebro. TFI 500, Germany). A
ber optic thermometer attached to a universal multichannel
instrument (Fiso Technologies, Quebec, Canada) was inserted
into the apple cubes to monitor temperature of sample during
microwave heating. The water content of apples determined
using the vacuumoven method at 70

C for 24h (AOAC, 1990).

To determine the average absorbed power, the method
of power measurement developed in previous studies was
adopted (Yang and Gunasekaran, 2004; Abbasi Souraki and
Mowla, 2008). Warming of time of distilled water during
microwave heating at different power levels was measured
using a thermometer and the absorbed power was obtained
using the following relationship:
Q
microwave
=
V Cp T
ave
+m
t
(32)
where Q
microwave
is the microwave power, the density, Cp the
specic heat and V the volume of distilled water, the latent
heat of evaporation, mthe changes in samples weight and t
is the necessary time to heating of samples. T
ave
is obtained
from3 replications. Since the samples heated far fromits sat-
uration temperature of water, m=0.
The measured power densities were 0.113, 0.263 and
0.413W/g at 150, 300 and 450W, respectively. Only 150 and
300Wpower levels were used in this study. On the other hand
power dissipated is a linear function of loss factor (

) and
recent factor is a linear functionof moisture content according
to following equation (Feng et al., 2002):

= 2.95 ln(

X) +2.733 (33)
This equation validated to moisture contents from0.5 to 9
(d.b.). We can conclude that:

= (0.3202 ln(

X) +0.2964)

0
(34)
According to foregoing discussion we can write:

Q = (0.3202 ln(

X) +0.2964)

Q
0
(35)
Since the power densities measured by Eq. (32) adjusted as
showed in Eq. (35). Experiments to determine the kinetics of
the convective microwave drying process were performed in
triplicates and their averages used to validate the mathemati-
cal model. The operational parameters are listed in Table 2.
Relative humidity of ambient air was 35% which was kept
constant by means of a laboratorys air conditioner.
4. Results and discussion
The total heat transfer coefcient during testing was calcu-
lated using Eq. (12), as well known lumped parameter analysis
(Holman, 2009). Aluminumcubes with the same geometry as
Table 2 Operative conditions of microwave assisted
uidized bed drying of apple cubes.
Test# Air temperature
(

C)
Microwave power
level (W/g)
1 50 0.000
2 60 0.113
3 70 0.000
4 60 0.113
5 50 0.263
6 60 0.113
7 70 0.263
8 60 0.113
9 60 0.263
10 50 0.113
11 60 0.113
12 70 0.113
13 60 0.113
14 60 0.000
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Fig. 3 Aluminumobjects used to estimate heat transfer
coefcient.
apple cubes were used to determine the heat transfer coef-
cient (Fig. 3).
The temperature at the center of the solid was mea-
sured at different time intervals under all conditions.
The timetemperature data were then used to plot
Ln[(TT
air
)/(T
0
T
air
)] vs. t and the slope of the straight
line was used to calculate the heat transfer coefcients for
the 10mm diameter aluminum cube (K=204W/m

C and
Cp=0.896kJ/kg

C) according to Eq. (12). For example, when

the air temperature was 50

C and its relative humidity was

35%, the total heat transfer coefcient was measured to be
about 131W/m
2
C (Fig. 4).
The effect of microwave power density on the average
moisture content of the drying samples is shown in Fig. 5. It
is clear that the microwave energy enhanced drying rate and
reduced drying time. Drying times for samples dried by the
application of microwave energy were decreased about 66%
and 73% at 150 and 300W(0.113 and 0.263W/g), respectively.
These results are in agreement with those obtained by other
researchers (Abbasi Souraki and Mowla, 2008).
Fig. 4 Timetemperature (dimensionless) plot for
determination of heat transfer coefcient of aluminum
cubes (h=131W/m
2
K) at an air velocity of 21m/s. The
presented data are the average of three replications.
Fig. 5 Average moisture content of apple cubes during
drying at microwave power densities of 0W, 150W
(0.113W/g) and 300W(0.263W/g), air temperature of 50

C
and air velocity of 21m/s.
Comparison of the experimental and predicted (by Eq.
(23)) average moisture content was carried out at differ-
ent drying times. When the air stream was directed to
another duct, weight measurement was made possible. This
method is more accurate than intermittent ofine weigh-
ing of the drying samples. An exponential decay of moisture
curve characterizes the falling rate period for the hygroscopic
materials. The good agreement between the predicted aver-
age moisture and experimental data may be related to the
dependency of effective moisture diffusivities on moisture
content and samples temperature which were used to solve
the mathematical model. The theoretical and experimen-
tal temperature variations for the apple cubes dried without
microwave energy at different temperatures are shown in
Fig. 6.
Temperature measurement could not be done at differ-
ent points on the drying samples because of their small size.
Only the temperature of the center and the surface of the
samples were measured using a probe type (Testo, Germany)
thermometer to check the accuracy of the temperature pre-
dictedby the mathematical model. These measurements were
carried out in the drying chamber during drying.
A exible thermocouple (Fiso Technologies, Quebec,
Canada) was placed at the center of each sample during
drying. Special attention was paid to ensure that sample
movement in the drying chamber was similar to that of other
drying samples on the uidized bed. The surface temperature
was measured using an emission-type thermometer (Ebro. TFI
500, Germany) as the uidized sample left the chamber using
a special device on the top of the chamber. The time required
for surface temperature measurement was about 2seconds.
As seen in Fig. 6, there was a signicant difference between
predicted and measured temperature, especially at the initial
stages of the drying process.
The temperature fall in the initial stage may be due to the
fact that at the beginning of the process, the surface moisture
did not equal X
e
, so the effect of evaporative cooling was more
signicant and the calculated temperature fell. This was less
evident when higher temperatures were used. However, there
was no good agreement between the estimated and measured
values. The assumption that the distribution of temperature
inside the sample is uniformis the source of this deviation. In
Please cite this article in press as: Askari, G.R., et al., Heat and mass transfer in apple cubes in a microwave-assisted uidized bed drier. Food
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Fig. 6 Predicted and measured temperature variation in
apple cubes during warmair drying at (a) 50

C and (b) 70

C
without microwave energy.
addition, the surface temperature was lower than that at the
center of the drying samples.
Temperature variations in drying samples at 50

C in the
presence of microwave heating at 0.113 and 0.263W/g (150
and 300W) power densities were different from those con-
ventional heating. Fig. 7 shows the temperature drops at
the rst stage of drying due to evaporative cooling during
surface evaporation. However, this is less evident compared
with those from conventional heating. It could be concluded
that the temperature drop was compensated by internal heat
generation. In addition, there was a dissimilar trend in tem-
perature variation between the center and outer layer of
samples. Temperature rose more rapidly at the rst stage,
particularly in the center of the apple cubes. Unlike conven-
tional heating, the temperature at the center of the drying
apples was evidently higher when microwave heating was
employed.
As illustrated, the surface temperature was higher when
apple cubes were dried using conventional hot air drying, even
in a uidized bed. On the other hand, there was no temper-
ature variation at the surface and center of samples during
drying, as was observed for microwave heating. It is clear that
the temperature variation, which reached 51

C at the initial
stages when the air temperature was 50

C, was the result of

the use of microwave power. The temperature dissimilarity
was more apparent at higher power densities (Fig. 7b). How-
ever, it was disappeared as moisture content decreased which
could be explained by the moisture dependency of microwave
Fig. 7 Predicted temperature variation in apple cubes
during warmair drying at 50

C with microwave power

densities of (a) 150 (0.113W/g) and (b) 300W(0.263W/g).
heating. Similar results were observed during the drying of
carrots (Sanga et al., 2002), corn (Jumah, 2005), potatoes and
carrots (Srikiatden and Roberts, 2006) and green peas (Abbasi
Souraki and Mowla, 2008). These three different periods can
be observed in Fig. 7.
In the early minutes of drying, the higher moisture content
allowed efcient internal heat generation, causing an increase
in sample temperature. Cooling fromevaporation at the sam-
ple surface may have compensated for this increase, so
sample temperature did not change dramatically. During the
second period, sample temperature increased to the tempera-
ture of the drying air, surpassing it under some conditions.
The dielectric properties of water depend on temperature
and enhanced heat generation at higher temperatures. In
the third period, the moisture content of samples decreased
and microwave absorption decreased progressively therefore,
samples temperature reached to the temperature of drying
air.
Finally, the over-estimation was observed in the last
stage of drying, when higher power densities were
used. This may have been a result of over-estimation of
microwave heating when the sample moisture content
decreased and, consequently, heat generation would be
decreased.
Please cite this article in press as: Askari, G.R., et al., Heat and mass transfer in apple cubes in a microwave-assisted uidized bed drier. Food
Bioprod Process (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fbp.2012.09.007
ARTICLE IN PRESS
FBP-344; No. of Pages 9
8 food and bioproducts processing x x x ( 2 0 1 2 ) xxxxxx
5. Conclusion
Moisture distribution and temperature variation in apple
cubes in a microwave-assisted uidized bed drier was
modeled using the basic law of conservation of mass and
heat. The predicted average moisture content showed a good
agreement with the experimental data. Microwave energy
enhanced the drying rate and samples were dried in lower
times. At the initial stages whenthe microwave power was not
applied, the center temperature was lower than surface and
surface temperature was lower than drying air temperature.
With microwave heating at the beginning stages the temper-
ature was rose quickly since microwave heating was more
efcient and leads to a different between center and surface
temperature. Predicted temperature was placed between the
center and surface temperatures. Center temperature showed
a signicant variationdue to pulsedmicrowave heating. These
variations are not observed at the surface due to the cooling
effects of drying air and lower moisture content. It could be
concluded that some undesired phenomena such as charring
and thermal deterioration of vitamins takes place in the cen-
tral areas of microwave heated samples. At the lower moisture
contents, the effect of microwave heating on the so called
temperature variation was weakened and classical drying
behavior was observed. That is calculated in model solution.
At these stages surface and centers temperature were more
adapted predicted values even in higher microwave powers.
Nomenclature
A surface area (m
2
)
aw water activity
C
p
specic heat (J/kg

C)
D
eff
effective moisture diffusivity (m
2
/s)
h total heat transfer coefcient (W/m
2
C)
M mass (kg)
M
s
mass of drying solid (kg)
Nu Nusselt number (dimensionless)
Pr Prandtl number (dimensionless)
Re Reynolds number (dimensionless)
Q
microwave
microwave heat generation (W)
t time (s)
T temperature (

C)
V volume (m
3
)
X moisture content (kg water/kg dry solid)

X average moisture content (kg water/kg dry solid)

x, y, z, l distance (m)
Subscripts
0 initial value
a drying air
e equilibrium
Greek letters
latent heat of vaporization (J/kg)

s
density (kg/m
3
dry solid)
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