Uso de soluções numéricas da equação de difusão em coordenadas cartesianas na descrição da desidratação osmótica de frutas.

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to study osmotic dehydration, using sucrose solutions, of guava and apple, and convective drying of apple with emphasis on mathematical modeling. The process characteristic kinetics of osmotic dehydration and convective drying are described using two types of mathematical models whose numerical solutions are obtained from one and two-dimensional diffusion equation on Cartesian coordinates, with boundary condition of the third kind: in the first, the process parameters and product dimension have been considered constant; in the second, those physical quantities have been regarded as variable. Numerical solutions have been obtained by using the finite volume method with a fully implicit formulation. An estimate of the process parameters, based on experimental data, is implemented by means of an optimizer implemented by the inverse method. Computer programs developed in FORTRAN have been devised to obtain numerical solutions, as well as to estimate the process parameters. These programs have demonstrated to be suitable tools for the study of osmotic dehydration and additional convective drying kinetics. Osmotic dehydration and convective drying experiments under various operating conditions have been implemented by the use of the specific methodologies, which have been appropriated for the purposes for which they have been designed. The results of the kinetics of osmotic dehydration relating to the fruits studied have shown to be consistent with literature, as well as the estimated parameters. The temperature and the concentration used in the experiments of osmotic dehydration and convective drying of apple significantly influenced its kinetics, as well as the values of the process parameters, having been less significant with respect to the osmotic dehydration of guava. The mathematical models which considered variable parameters as well as the shrinkage inherent to osmotic dehydration and convective drying have been physically suitable, besides showing a slight improvement in statistical indicators. Comparative studies revealed that the one-dimensional models overestimate the process parameters of osmotic dehydration and convective drying.