DRYING CHARACTERISTINCS OF THIN-LAYERS OF WHEAT AND BARLEY AT NEAR-AMBIENT TEMPERATURE

  • Sun, Da-Wen (Department of Agricultural and Environment Science, University of Newcastle upon Type) ;
  • J.J.Woods (Department of Agricultural and Environment Science, University of Newcastle upon Type)
  • Published : 1993.10.01

Abstract

Thin-layers of wheat and barley are dried at near-ambient temperatures(3.5$^{\circ}C$ -5$0^{\circ}C$) in order to obtain the intrinsic drying data. The well established apparatus was modified to enable it to record all the sample weight data in still air by using a purpose -built automatically controlled sliding valve. The air could be diverted in less than 0.5seconds and a 7 second period was required to attain a steady weight reading. With this apparatus, very smooth drying curves were obtained. The data of sample weight , drying temperature and dew point temperature wee recorded continuously . The drying process was terminated when the moisture content change in 24 hours was less than 0.004 d.b. This was achieved by drying a sample for about a week . The final points were recorded as the dynamic equilibrium moisture content(EMC). The drying data were than fitted to the exponential Newton model and the dynamic EMC data were fitted to the Modified-Chung-Pfost Model . All the fitted parameters are given and comparison is made with previous published data. The comparisons who that the current drying constants are lower than the previous data, the dynamic EMC data obtained for wheat and barely agree with the previous data. The results show that to obtain the drying constant in the exponential Newton model, adequate drying time is necessary.

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