Intermittent Drying of Mango Slices ( Mangifera indica L. ) “ Amelie ” : A New Model

The present work has focused on the determination of a new model of intermittent thin film drying of mango. During the experiments, the samples spread on three trays, were placed in a through-flow modular electric dryer. The masses of the fresh products studied were 500 and 800g having an initial moisture content of 80%. Drying was carried out using three inlet air temperatures 40; 50 and 60°C for four cycles of 120 minutes and for each intermittency value α = ¼,α= ½ and α = ¾. The experimental values obtained have permitted to draw the profiles of moisture ratio for each temperature. Theses profiles have conducted for a test of twelve different thin film models encountered in the literature. For each given cycle and value of the selected intermittency, the results showed that all the curves were described by the same model. Taking into account the intermittency and the number of cycles, a new thin layer drying model has been developed. The simulation of this new drying model showed a good agreement with the experimental curves obtained under the same drying conditions with R2 = 0.996, independently of the drying air temperature and the value of intermittency α.