S Azizi - Department of Chemical Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Mahshahr branch, Mahshahr, Iran
S . M Peyghambarzadeh - Department of Chemical Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Mahshahr branch, Mahshahr, Iran

Air-drying of potato slab and moisture transfer in it has been investigated experimentally. Drying curve was obtained from potato sample (10 mm thickness) under convective hot air drying (80˚C and 4 m/s air velocity). Various conventional mathematical models were examined for predicting the experimental data and the amount of errors of each model was investigated. The mean effective moisture diffusivity of the material during the drying process was calculated by comparing the experimental results with mathematical model of drying and from which, the mean effective diffusivity of moisture in the potato slab is calculated 2.06364×10-9 m2/sec. Besides Calculation of effective moisture diffusivity in short periods of time shows that this physical property is strongly depends on the moisture content of solid and it has been shown that the moisture diffusivity increases by decreasing the mean moisture content.

Drying, Potato, Diffusivity, Modeling, Slab