A single correlation for the prediction of dehydration time in drying and frying of samples having different geometry and size Original Research Article

Potato cylinders with diameters of 9.5, 16 and 22 mm were deep fried at temperatures ranging from 178 to 215 °C. This study was intended to test the validity of a model previously developed for flat geometry on cylindrical and spherical geometry. The analysis is based on a unified and simple quasi-steady-state model that can be used to describe a number of important applications. The model can be applied to all moving boundary problems whenever sensible heat can be ignored. Some of the experimental measurements available in the literature on frying of potato crisps and spheres, freeze-drying of meat, superheated steam drying of tortilla chips and spray drying of droplets were used to test the validity of the model. The agreement between the model predictions and the experiments was reasonably good; especially since it has been tested against a wide range of applications. The model, which is an analytical one, was developed further to generate a unified dimensionless equation that can be used to predict the drying and frying time.