Study and Characterization of Air Flows During Intermittent Drying
Résumé
This work presents the study and characterization of the airflows during the intermittent drying of a local variety of mango from the Adamawa Region. The experimental study was carried out in a modular electric forced convection dryer. Three air drying temperatures, an air velocity (1.37 m/s) and two initial masses of mango samples were the conditions selected of drying process. The duration of the drying cycle was set at 120 minutes and the intermittency α was taken as the ratio between the drying time at the drying air temperature and the total duration of a cycle. Analysis of the curves showed that during vacuum drying, for an operating time of the dryer of 210 minutes, the air relative humidity inside the drying chamber was 48.9; 40.6 and 19.7% respectively for α = ¼, ½ and ¾, at the respective temperatures of 40; 50 and 60°C. During the load tests, the airflow rate in the drying chamber was
turbulent. Drying with α = ¾ allowed to have better drying performance for an initial mass of 500g, against a mass of 800g causes a rapid rise in the air drying relative humidity inside the drying chamber which prolongs the drying time comparatively.