ANN modeling for diffusivity of mushroom and vegetables using a fluidized bed dryer

• Effective diffusivity, activation energy and mass transfer coefficients were studied.
• Regression analysis and ANN analysis were used to study parameter effects.
• ANN modeling was found to be suitable for assessing the correlations obtained.
• Drying kinetics of mushroom and other vegetables were compared.

Drying characteristics in terms of diffusivity were studied for mushrooms and different vegetables in a fluidized bed dryer. Drying characteristics with falling rate regime were computed for all the samples. Effective diffusivity of each sample was calculated. Mass transfer coefficients were determined. Mass transfer kinetics for drying of different samples was also found out. Correlations for the diffusivity of samples were developed by relating the experimentally observed data with the different system parameters on the basis of regression analysis. The developed correlations for effective moisture diffusivity of the samples are validated by artificial neural network (ANN) modeling. Finally calculated values of diffusivity obtained through both the methods are compared with the experimentally measured values which show a very good approximation thereby indicating the wide applicability of the developed correlations for industrial uses.

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