Modeling of Transport Processes in Solar Drying

This book summarizes the effect of heat and mass transfer on temperature and moisture content of potato during solar drying. A Finite Element (FE) Modeling software, COMSOL Multiphysics is employed for the modeling purpose considering the variation in product geometry and shrinkage during the solar drying process. The transport parameters viz., convective heat transfer coefficient, moisture diffusion coefficient and convective mass transfer coefficient are determined without and with considering shrinkage effect during the drying period. To expand the scope of acceptability among consumers, the influence of pre-drying treatment on dried product quality is characterized in terms of rehydration, color, texture, nano-indentation, microstructure, surface roughness and X-ray diffraction analyses.