EXPERIMENTAL STUDY AND MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF FIGS DRYING IN A FIXED-BED DRYER

In the present study the drying kinetics and characteristics of Figs was studied experimentally and theoretically. Experiments were carried out in a fixed bed dryer and the effect of operating parameters including temperature, velocity, and humidity of drying air on drying process was investigated. Using conservation laws of energy and mass a distributed type model was developed for theoretical analysis of dryer and solved numerically. Comparison of model results with corresponding experimental data indicates that the developed model could predict properly the performance of dryer for different operating conditions.