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Rate of evaporation
= (Ys - Ya )
= (0.0244 - 0.0198) kg kg-1
= 0.0046 kg kg-1
= k'gA(Ys - Ya)
= 0.015 x 1 x 0.0046
= 6.9 x 10-5 kg s-1
content of the material. So the situation is complicated. However, in many cases a simplified approach
can provide useful results. One simplification is to assume that the temperature and RH of the drying air
are constant.
In this case, for the constant-rate period, the time needed to remove the quantity of water which will
reduce the food material to the critical moisture content Xc (that corresponding to the end of the constantrate period and below which the drying rate falls) can be calculated by dividing this quantity of moisture by
the rate.
So
(7.6)
(7.7)
and this has to be integrated piecemeal down to X = X f where subscript f denotes the final water content,
and fexpresses the ratio of the actual drying rate to the maximum drying rate corresponding to the free
surface
w ( X) / [f(dw /dt)const]
can be applied, over small intervals of moisture content and multiplying the constant rate by the
appropriate reduction factor (f) read of from Fig. 7.7. This can be set out in a table. Note the temperature
and humidity of the air were assumed to be constant throughout the drying.
Moisture content X
w(X1 - X2)
f
1/f(dw/dt)const.
= 1/ f(7.128 x 10-3)
t
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.18
0.17
0.4
0.2
0.86
0.57
0.29
0.11
0.005
1.63 x 102
2.46 x102
4.84 x 102
1.28 x 103
2.81 x 104
326
492
968
512
5620