Diffusive model with variable effective diffusivity considering shrinkage in thin layer drying of chitosan

In the thin layer drying of chitosan, a diffusive model considering the material volume change was used, due to the occurrence of shrinkage during the operation. The samples were placed in a rectangular tray with 4 mm of thickness, and inserted in the discontinuous dryer, with parallel air flow at 60 °C of temperature and air speed of 1.5 m/s. The sample shrinkage occurred in the thickness, and the linear shrinkage coefficient was constant. In the model, variable moisture effective diffusivity and equilibrium conditions at the material surface were considered. The dimensionless second order non linear partial differential equation, resulting from the model, was solved numerically by the finite differences technique. A good agreement between the numerical data of the average moisture content, obtained by the model, and the experimental data was observed.