Formulation of approximate generalized mathematical model for Percentage of Moisture loss from crop after drying under Solar drying

ABSTRACT Drying is one of the major food processing operations. The main objective of drying is to remove free water from fruit and vegetables to the extent where micro-organisms do not survive so that dried green herbs can be stored for longer period without rotting and deterioration in the quality of the product. This paper presents an experimental investigations and Sequential classical experimentation technique has been used to perform experiments for various sizes of green herbs at different weather conditions to establish model for moisture removal rate for drying operation. An attempt of mini-max principle has been made to optimize the range bound process parameters for maximizing moisture loss from crop after drying. The test results proved that moisture removal rate values were significantly influenced by changing important eight dimensionless π terms. The process parameters grouped in π terms were suggested the effective guidelines to the manufacturer for improving productivity by changing any one or all from the available process parameters.