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Modeling Cereal Grain Drying with Variable Diffusivity
Author(s) -
Tolaba Marcela P.,
Aguerre Roberto J.,
Suárez Constantino
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
cereal chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.558
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1943-3638
pISSN - 0009-0352
DOI - 10.1094/cchem.1997.74.6.842
Subject(s) - thermal diffusivity , chemistry , diffusion , mass diffusivity , sorghum , effective diffusion coefficient , thermodynamics , water content , diffusion equation , biological system , agronomy , physics , geotechnical engineering , economy , radiology , service (business) , biology , medicine , magnetic resonance imaging , economics , engineering
The thin‐layer drying or rough rice, maize and sorghum at several temperatures was investigated. Simulation of the experimental data was performed by solving numerically the diffusion equation with variable diffusion coefficient for spherical‐shaped grain. To account for this variation, an analytical expression for the dependence of the diffusion coefficient with moisture content was obtained based on considerations of the energy needed to dissociate water molecules from their sites and of resistance to diffusion. When the expression for diffusivity was used for predicting drying behavior of the grains, a good agreement was obtained between experimental data and the theoretical prediction.