Quality Assessment and Mathematical Modeling of Hot-Air Convective Drying of Persimmon (Diospyros kaki L.) Fruit

Abstract

Abstract The influence of drying on the color, porosity, shrinkage and moisture of persimmon fruit during convective drying was determined by computer vision. The experiments were performed with persimmon fruit that were cut into slab 20 × 20 mm, which were arranged into a bigger slab, 60 × 60 mm. Drying process was carried out at 60 °C. Noticeable changes in quality parameters (color, porosity and shrinkage) could be observed during the drying process, where the central region of the sample evidenced less changes. Persimmon’s physical properties were experimentally obtained as the temperature function and heat and mass convective coefficients were adjusted as a time function. A numerical simulation using the Finite Volume Method allowed to describe the evolution of temperature and moisture content distributions during drying. The numerical and experimental results of temperature and moisture during persimmon drying were found to be in a good agreement.