Obtaining model parameters of drying kinetics for highly shrinkable materials without knowing the surface area a priori

Shrinkage parameters of highly shrinkable materials such as length, diameter and surface area during drying are difficult to quantify in situ. However, these are significant components of an accurate model. In this study, an attempt to isolate the surface area effect is reported in order to fetch the REA model (reaction engineering approach) parameters without knowing it a priori. Carrot cube and cabbage leaf were selected as experimental material and dried with hot air under a range of conditions. Shrinkages was calculated using an optical method which is used to qualitatively compare with that “calculated” using the current approach. By matching the experimental temperature and moisture content profiles against time after obtaining REA parameters for both samples without knowing the surface area, the surface areas can be “calculated” numerically. Surface area was found to be affected by sample temperature as well as the moisture content. Drying simulations can be well carried out when correlating the surface area against sample moisture content X and temperature T, and it provides the best accuracy in predicting data on T and X vs. time. In addition, carrot cube can shrink ideally while cabbage leaf cannot. The overall relative errors of predicted moisture content and temperature were less than 1%.