SHAPE -ZATION FOR DIFFUSIOhW, ANALYSIS OF CORN DRYING

Abstract
The thin-layer drying of corn was analyzed in tern of Fick⢙s second law for diffusion. For spherical kernels (sphericity 0.98) Fick's law for diffusion out of a sphere was found appropriate model experimental drying curves. The diffusion coefficients deter mined by mans of this equation and corrected by the square of the s~hericity were taken as the intrinsic diffusivities of corn grain. Dent kernels were modeled by means of Fick's law assuming three different geometries: sphere, ellipsoid and parallelopiped. It was found that although the “Fickian” model describes reasonably well theexperimntal drying curves in the three cases, the diffusion coefficients obtained from the sphere differ mkedly from those corresponding to the parallelopipd and ellipsoid. For these last two geometries the diffusion coefficients practically agree with the intrinsic diffusivities obtained for spherical kernels

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