EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF DRYING YACON TUBERS

This study discusses the method and experimental drying unit for drying yacon tubers at different temperatures. And also the scheme of experimental drying unit is given, which controls temperature, speed of warm air and shows the mass of dried material. The cross-sectional area of the flow in the tunnel is 20×20 cm, the thermal air passed horizontally through a chute with holes and a surface area of 12×12 cm. The exhaust gas did not circulate in this experiment. The accuracy of the temperature control system was 0.1 °C, the weight control system 0.1 g. The variation of moisture ratio depending on the drying time of yacon took place at temperatures of warm air of 65, 70, 75, 80 and 85 °C, cut to a thickness of 4 mm and air speed of 1.05 m/s. The air temperature was controlled by a proportional controller. The variation of the drying speed as a function of moisture content is shown in Fig.2-7. The curves show that the drying rate decreases continuously with increasing time