THIN-LAYER DRYING OF CORN - EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION OF A NEW NUMERICAL STRUCTURAL MODEL

Changes in the average moisture content of the kernel during thin-layer drying of corn were measured experimentally and represented by five empirical equations published in the literature. Curve fitting accuracy was examined for all the equations and three of them (the modified logarithmic model, the two-term exponential model, and the modified two-term exponential model) were used to validate a numerical model of thin-layer corn drying developed by the authors. Relative errors between the experimental data represented by the empirical equations and the results predicted by the numerical model were computed locally and globally over the drying period. The global errors were 10.6%, 12.9%, and 11.9%, respectively compared to the three empirical equations.