AN EXPERIMENTAL AND MODELING INVESTIGATION ON DRYING OF CHICKEN MEAT IN CONVECTIVE DRYER

This work reported a theoretical and experimental study on the thin layer drying kinetics of chicken meat samples under different air drying conditions. Experimental drying curves of chicken meat were performed under different drying air conditions (three air temperatures: 40, 50 and 60 degrees C, air velocities: 1 ms(-1), and at atmosphere humidity). The drying rate was found to increase significantly with increase in temperature. The duration of constant rate period was found to be insignificant considering the total duration of drying and the entire drying period was considered to follow falling rate period. The experimental moisture ratio data was fitted to eight thin layer drying models. The Midilli et al. model showed the best fit in all drying conditions. The effective moisture diffusivity has been found to be varying between 4.39 x 10(-10) and 9.96 x 10(-10) m(2)s(-1) and activation energy was 27.85 kJ mol(-1).